The Legend of Kybo
by ApollotheNinja
Summary: Born on the one hundredth anniversary of the spirit portal in Republic City, a fifteen year-old firebending Avatar named Kybo was born after Avatar Kiana was killed. Kybo has to discover his true powers with his two siblings, Joy and Marcus to stop a powerful crime organization that was behind the death of his previous life. Rated T just to be safe.
1. Ambush

**Hey guys, I'm sorry that I stopped my Percy Jackson/Kane Chronicles fics, here are the reasons: I found it difficult to make time, I lost that passion that I'm sure all you authors have, my fics weren't well written, and, finally, at one point, my daily views trickled down to the single digits. I would have kept going if I had a lot of fans, but I didn't. Sorry. I still love Percy Jackson books with all my heart and soul, but I think I found a new passion in this Avatar fic. Any notifications will be on my profile page. Thanks, enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

I sat on my bed in the hotel suite of the Sato Hotel, named in remembrance of Asami Sato, who helped revolutionize Rebublic City.

I stood up and gave myself a quick look in the mirror.

Same girl as the fifteen year old street rat with dark brown hair and a strong need to do what is right, who the White Lotus picked up in Ba Sing Sa after I found out I could earthbend and waterbend.

The only difference was that twelve years have passed, and I have matured much more.

I sighed.

I guess it is time to speak at the ceremony for the hundred year anniversary of the spirit portal in Republic City, which was a opened by Avatar Korra.

I am not extremely good at speaking in front of people, but that wasn't the problem. I felt an itch that something was going to go wrong, that this would be the perfect place for an attack, with me, the president, and thousands of people there.

I shook the thought out of my head.

_Stop it Key_, I told myself. _If there is a threat, take care of it. You are Avatar Kiana for gosh sake_.

I smoothed out my clothes, black pants and boots with a black and green long sleeve shirt with the Earth Kingdom insignia on it, and walked out of my room and to the elevator, where people were waiting for me on the ground floor.

* * *

**_In a house outside Republic City..._**

I groaned in pain.

My belly hurt very much. Possibly since I'm nine months pregnant and my husband, Jason, is busy with my three year old son, Marcus.

He saw me groaning in pain and rushed toward the bathroom, where he turned on the sink and surrounded his hand in water with waterbending. Then he rushed to my side.

The water surrounding Jason's hand glowed a soft blue color, which Marcus seemed like he wanted to touch, and he put his hand on my swollen belly.

Immediately, the pain subsided.

"Better Diana?" He asked.

"Much." I responded through a sigh of relief.

He nodded and went back to Marcus.

The baby, who we knew was a boy, could either be a firebender, like me, a waterbender, like Jason, or a nonbender.

I was kind of favoring it being a nonbender. We can barely keep Marcus from bending and flinging his milk during breakfast, since he's a waterbender, and I've heard the stories from my parents about how destructive I was as a baby.

The thought made me smile.

Suddenly, a deeper pain started to cut though me, making me start to pant and groan.

This meant one thing.

When Jason ran over again, I told him what was happening.

"The baby is coming." I told him frantically.

He responded immediately, bending down towards Marcus saying. "Hey buddy, piggy back ride, time to go on an adventure!"

Marcus giggled and stood up, wrapping his arms around the back of Jason's neck.

With Jason's hands free, he scooped me up and he took the two of us out of the house toward his Satomobile.

He laid me down in the passenger seat and laid Marcus on his lap when he went in the driver's seat, then hit the gas.

We surged forward and we managed to get to the main road leading to Republic City.

"The closest hospital is in Republic City, we have to get there." He told me. "Luckily, everyone will be parked outside the assembly area for the ceremony in the heart of Rebublic City. Should clear a way to the hospital."

I only managed to nod.

In no time, we were at the hospital, and I was being wheeled in.

* * *

**_Close to the ceremony..._**

After I was greeted by many people outside, I was taken to the ceremony via limbo.

As the limbo passed the people at the rails, who were being kept in check by the metalbending police, I smiled at everyone going by.

Finally, I was at the podium in front of the portal.

I stood up on the podium, feeling quite confident in speaking to the crowd.

I started with a greeting.

"Hello, Republic City." I said to them. "It is a great honor to be here to celebrate the amazing task that my past life achieved."

I was met with cheering.

I smiled back.

"First, let's address what has happened since then." I told them. "Since then, some spirits have called the material world home and small groups of humans have decided to live in the Spirit World. Also technology has improved, thanks to Avatar Korra's wife, Asami Sato, who revolutionized technology here in Republic City, may she rest in peace."

Everyone nodded and mumbled in response.

"Also, Avatar Korra has done very much since then, helping defeat crime, and inspiring people, even after death, including myself. She lived to a ripe old age of ninety-four, before passing away." I told them. "Also, the airbenders have become something that might actually be considered a nation. The descendants of each of Avatar Aang's four grandchildren relocated to each of the four temples, helping lead the remaining airbenders and helping them embrace their culture."

Everyone started to nod and smile, and some even cheered.

Time to go on the the next topic.

"Anyways, with the other natio..."

I was cut off when I felt something hot flying towards me and blocked an incoming fireball with a shield of air just in time, which blasted me off the podium.

As I was spinning through the air, I saw the crowds of people running in panic.

I managed to slow my landing with a cushion of air and turned to face my opponent.

It was a man in some kind of black and red, high-tech armor that covered most of his body, the parts not covered by metal were covered with the black cloth underneath. The eye holes in his mask were glowing red.

I learned enough energybending to be able to "read" someone's bending and power. This man was a firebender, and his power was raw and powerful, much more than should be possible, but at the same time, not natural.

"What do you want?!" I yelled.

"To put you six feet under." He responded in a robotic, menacing voice.

He launched a blast of fire towards me out of his hand, the only exposed parts of him.

I threw up a large rock wall just in time, the blast scorching the rock, then kicked the wall towards him.

He destroyed it with a fireball, but I used the distraction to try to metalbend his suit.

It wouldn't work.

_Dammit, platinum_, I thought to myself.

Time to take some offense.

I sent a blast of air towards him, pushing him back, but not toppling him, thanks to the armor. He responded by rocketing towards me with firebending.

Once he got close, he surrounded his fists in flames and trying to punch me.

I responded my ducking and punching my fists into the ground, when I pulled them out the were each surrounded by a rock the size of a basket ball.

I smacked him hard with one of my rock fists, causing it to shatter, then I did the same with the other one. I finished off by nailing him in the head with a fireball, then hitting him in the chest with a pillar of earth.

He staggered back, clearly hurt, then he started to crackle with electricity.

_He is conjuring lightning_, I thought to myself, then started to conjure lightning of my own.

The we launched them.

Our two lightings collided, trying to push it towards each other.

And his was starting to overpower mine.

He was clearly a stronger firebender than I was.

_Wait, what if I let it hit me_, I thought.

It's a gamble, but it could work.

I let my lightning fizzle out and held out two fingers, letting the lighting hit me there.

My body started hurting immensely from channeling the lightning, but I forced it through my body, adding some of my own, and fired it out of my other hand.

The lighting hit him full on, causing him to slam into the building behind him, his suit crackling and spasming.

"Get out here boys!" He yelled.

Suddenly, three more men appeared from a nearby alley, each in identical suits. The only difference was that, instead of black and red, one had black and blue, the other had black and green, and the final one had black and white.

As I expected, when I "read" them, they were water, earth, and airbenders, respectively, each with the same, raw, unnatural power.

I jumped upwards and slammed my two fists into the ground in front of my, creating a shockwave that knocked the three of them back, but they quickly got back up.

The waterbender created a water whip, which froze into an icicle, and lunged at me.

I ducked under it and, when he thrust it downwards, I dodged it again as it shattered against the ground.

I immediately did a series of flips to avoid a volley of rocks coming from the earthbender, but got hit in the chest with an air blast from the airbender, knocking me to the floor.

_I guess I don't have a choice_, I thought. _These three are definitely stronger than me if I don't use the Avatar State._

I felt power surge through me as I entered the Avatar State.

The three men gasped as I sent a wave of fire in all directions, knocking them back. I then created a water spout beneath me from water from the sewer and sent a sustained blast of fire towards them from above, which met a combined elemental blast from the three of them.

The attacks collided, creating a blinding light and an explosion.

I fell off the water spout and slammed onto the ground, but the three men got the worst of it, being thrown back from the explosion, armor battered.

I got up and advanced, but then, suddenly, I felt a horrible pain and the warm feeling of dripping blood on the side of my stomach.

I looked down and saw an arrow emerging from it.

No, not an arrow, a harpoon.

I managed to catch a glimpse of the firebender behind me, still in a sitting position against the wall of building that he was thrown against with his arm out, a long metal wire between his arm and the harpoon.

He had launched the harpoon from his arm.

"Goodbye Avatar." He said.

Then, he grabbed the wire and electricity shot from his hand, up the wire, into the harpoon.

And into me.

It felt like my insides were being fried, but I channeled all of my energy and Raava's into releasing the electricity, both his and mine, in all directions.

The shockwave, slammed into the three in front of me, which sent them flying and caused suits to crackle and spasm too.

I didn't see the end of it because I collapsed to the ground and lost consciousness.

* * *

**_Meanwhile, in Republic City Hospital..._**

"Your doing great honey." Jason told me as he sat next to me with Marcus on his lap.

I had been wheeled into a large room that housed a few other people in beds with wheels, with two nurses next to my bed.

They ran out of rooms for single people, so they put us in this leftover room.

Through gasps, I saw the door to the room burst open, where nursed were frantically wheeling a bed into the room with a young lady on it, with a metal object sticking out of her side.

Lots of blood.

Jason covered Marcus' eyes just as I realized who it was.

It was Avatar Kiana.

My breath quickened.

One of the nurses with me left to help the Avatar, leaving the other one with me.

Avatar Kiana was wheeled next to me.

The doctors scrambled around quickly, I was too tired to hear them, something about "too much blood" and "unable to it out".

She lolled her head to the side to look at me, then she held out her hand.

I took it.

It felt cold.

She slowly smiled.

"Congratulations." She managed to say.

Then her eyes lost the light behind them.

A long beep rang out, which I knew was her flat lining.

Before I could process that, I felt my baby starting to come out, yelling out in pain.

Doctors where swarming around both me and the Avatar.

I faded out of conciousness, squeezing Jason's comforting hand.

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	2. Rebirth

**Hey guys, I hope you like this. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_In Republic City Hospital..._**

I slowly woke up, staring up at the hospital ceiling. Then I looked to my side to find Jason with Marcus on his lap.

And a baby in his hands.

I reached forward and gently held the baby close to me.

Then, I realized what had happened earlier

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Almost four hours." He responded. "There was an attack at the ceremony by a group of powerful benders. They killed Kiana."

I sat in silence for a moment before Jason broke it.

"Should we give him the name we planned?" Jason asked. "Tyler?"

I thought for a moment.

"No," I told him. "Kybo."

He looked at me with a puzzled look.

"That was Avatar Kiana's brother's name." I explained.

He nodded for a moment.

"Kybo," he repeated, then looked at me and smiled.

"I like it."

_(Author's note, Kybo is based off of kibo, which means hope in Japanese)_

* * *

**_Fifteen years later..._**

We were practicing our bending in the woods near our house.

I just got smacked in the side of the head by a water whip.

"Heads up, Kybo." Marcus called over.

I rubbed the side of my head.

"Easy, Marcus." I called back.

I suddenly felt something hot coming at me from the side.

I turned around and extinguished a fire blast with my own firebending.

"Cheap move, Joy." I called to my younger sister of three years.

"Cheap and dirty wins the race." Joy called back as she sent a fire blast towards Marcus, who blocked it with a shield of water.

We were in a triangle, trading blows with one another.

My two siblings, Marcus and Joy, were as alike as night and day.

Marcus was serious, Joy was a jokester. Marcus was a waterbender, Joy was a firebender. Marcus has tan skin, is muscular, and has very short, brown hair, Joy was a skinny, pale girl with straight, dark hair. Marcus' bending prowess came from skill, Joy's came from talent.

Then, Marcus shot out two water whips, which tripped up Joy and I.

Before we could get up, he froze our legs together.

"I win." He said with a slight smile. "I have always told you that water is better fire."

"Guess again." I said as we both melted our restraints and stood up.

I got ready to send a blast of fire towards Marcus when Joy cry out in pain.

We both looked and saw that she was clutching her forehead.

We rushed over and Marcus used some of the water from his pouch to surround his hand, causing it to glow a soft blue, a technique he learned from our dad.

He put his hand on Joy's head.

"Better?" He asked.

She nodded.

This hadn't happened in a while. Joy describes these headaches as a scorching heat, rather than piercing headaches . Doctors couldn't find out what it was, assuring us that she was completely healthy.

We all decided to go back to the house for dinner.

When we got there, we saw our parents preparing dinner. We don't really have a stove, instead, mom uses firebending, and dad's water whips help around the kitchen.

Our mom saw us first.

"Kids, we talked about this," she lectured us. "Be back by seven, your thirty minutes late."

"Sorry." We all said at once.

She smiled warmly.

"It's fine, we made your favorite."

We all lit up.

Our parents' broth was the best. The onions, celery, and rosemary made it taste great, plus there were chunks of different hybrid pig meats.

Pretty soon, we were sitting at the table, talking about our days.

"I think I'm getting better at firebending," I told them. "I mean, Marcus is a better bender than I am and Joy is so much better than I was at her age, but maybe I can close the gap."

Mom smiled warmly.

"Sweet, nice job honey." She told me.

"Yeah, maybe he will get there in another fifteen years." Joy teased.

Mom sent her one of her looks that made her appear to shrink.

"Also, Joy had another one of those headaches." I told her.

"Again?" She asked. "Seriously, this headache is clearly not nothing, no matter what the doctors say."

Then she turned toward Marcus.

"How was school Marcus?" She asked.

He looked down at his broth.

"Did you get in another fight?" She asked.

He continued to look down.

"Marcus," She chided. "We talked about this."

He put his hands on the table and looked up.

"Look," He said. "Some big earthbending kid was threatening one of the girls in a younger grade, I stepped in, both of us used our bending."

Dad leaned forward.

"Did you win?" He asked.

Marcus smirked.

"He was sprawled out on the floor before he knew what hit him." Marcus said proudly.

Mom put her fingers to her temple and then looked at Marcus.

"Marcus, I'm proud that you stepped in, but if you keep doing this, you will get expelled." She told him.

"Does it matter?" He asked. "I'm on my last year and we can't afford college. The only reason why we are getting by is because your bending helps around the house."

We all sat in silence.

It was true.

"How long were you suspended?" Mom finally asked.

"Two weeks." He responded.

Both parents looked to the ground, but, to my surprise, dad spoke up first.

"If you got suspended for two weeks, then your going to make yourself useful in that time." Dad told him. "We are running out of meat, take my Satomobile to Republic City and get some groceries once your done eating. I was also planning on taking Kybo and Joy to the city to get ice cream at Polar Treats, but you can do it."

Marcus clearly wasn't thrilled about it but he nodded.

Even though Marcus was serious, he was still a good brother and never really complained.

Once we were done eating, we headed for the car.

Once we got in, Marcus drove for about ten minutes before he reached the city.

Even though we've seen Republic City before, it never ceases to take my breath away. The lights in the city were like stars, and the business going on everywhere.

When we got to the grocery shop, Marcus picked up some beef, chicken pig meat, and even a platypus bear egg, which was like three hundred yuons out of the fifteen hundred yuons dad gave him.

_(Author's note, I believe that a rough estimate of a yuon is ten American cents)_

After we we're done, there was still five hundred yuons left, so we decided to go get some ice cream after he put the groceries in the car.

As we were walking down the sidewalk, the sun now starting to go down, we heard a voice from the alley next to us.

"Hey, over here punk."

We looked and saw three men, the lead one being a very large man. The man looked like an earthbender, as well as another one who looked like an earthbender, and the last one seemed like a firebender, judging on how he was dressed.

"Anything valuable you have, give it." He demanded, holding an open bag.

Marcus threw them the five hundred yuons, after he realized that he didn't bring his waterskin, a fur bag that held water.

The large man gestured over to the locket around Joy's neck that our grandmother gave her.

"That too." He told her.

She put a hand on it.

"No." She said.

"Well, your not exactly in charge here, sweetheart." He said menacingly.

He looked at his two goons.

"Take these three to the boss, he'll know what to do with them." He told them.

Marcus turned toward us.

"Run!" He yelled as he rushed toward the large man, fists clenched.

The man grabbed him around the throat, holding him in place.

Joy and I responded by each shooting a fire blast.

The man who we guessed was a firebender stepped in front and extinguished the flames.

"Hit'em." He said to the other guy, who I had guessed was also an earthbender.

The goon nodded and lifted his foot off the ground, planning on putting it back down.

He was going to hit us with an earthbending attack.

At that moment, Marcus broke free from the large man's grip and shoved us to the side.

Then Marcus got hit in the gut by an rock pillar.

He flew backwards and landed on the ground on his back.

I felt a sudden rage surge through me, then I spotted some water pooling near the back of the alley.

I moved out of complete instinct.

I pulled the water toward me and created a water whip and smacked the large man with it.

He staggered back, then I grabbed him around the neck with it and jerked hard, flipping him and causing him to fall on his face.

I finished by smacking him in the side of the head with the whip one last time, knocking him out.

_Oh my gosh_, I thought, _I just waterbent_.

I was snapped back into reality again when the firebender rushed forward, hand on fire.

I shot out some of the water from the water whip, using it to freeze his hand to the wall. Then I hit him with a blast of fire and knocked his feet out from under him with the whip, causing him to hit his head and go into unconsciousness.

Finally, the second earthbender sent a series of sharpened rocks toward me.

I turned the water whip into a frozen shield, letting the stones imbed themselves into it, then hit him with a blast of fire. I then turned the shield back into a whip and wrapped it around his chest.

I then slammed him into one wall of the alley, then the other, then finally, lifted him up and slammed him down, causing him to be knocked unconscious.

I looked back at Joy and a groaning Marcus, who were staring at me in disbelief.

"I...I don't know what I..." I stammered, when Joy interrupted.

"Kybo, your the frikin Avatar!" Joy cried out.

The reality finally set in.

Marcus finally stopped staring and spoke up.

"Let's go." He said.

We all agreed and ran out of the alley.

* * *

**_Somewhere in Republic City..._**

I sat in the back of the dark room.

"Well, what is so urgent?" I asked the three men across the room.

The largest one, Dale, spoke up.

"We were taken down by some kids we tried to rob."

"So what you wanted to tell me was your incompetence?" I asked calmly, but had anger in the back of my voice.

"No, one of the kids could bend both water and fire." He told me.

My eyes opened a little bit wider as I snapped into attention.

Then I smiled.

"Thank you for letting me know." I told them. "You will be rewarded. Now go."

They grinned and scampered off.

This was great. I had now located the Avatar.

I already killed one Avatar, this child shouldn't be a problem.

* * *

**Well, I hope you enjoyed the plot twist at the end. Thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	3. Disaster

**Hey guys. I have big plans for this chapter. I hope you like it. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Somewhere in Republic City..._**

"Anything?" I asked, finding myself losing patience.

The man at the computer, Darryl, spoke up.

"Nothing sir, I checked the police database from our men in the police force, nothing."

"Do you think they wiped their identity or something?" I asked.

"No, the answer is simple, they don't live in Republic City." He told me.

I thought for a moment.

"Dale told me that they were probably going shopping, meaning that they must live somewhere just outside Republic City." I told them. "Check hospital records, if they live just outside the city, then they would need to access a hospital inside the city, check any child born the day I killed Avatar Kiana with at least one firebending parent."

He nodded and went back to work.

I knew one thing was certain, I won't stop until I took this boy down. The Avatar is the main threat to our organization, which is why I killed Kiana.

* * *

**_Just outside Republic City..._**

We were driving in complete silence, trying to get back to the house.

"Should we tell mom and dad?" Joy finally asked.

"No." I said.

"Why not?" Joy asked.

"Look at what happened to the last Avatar." I told her, causing her to go silent.

We continued to remain silent for the rest of the car ride.

After about five more minutes, we were back at the house.

We were greeted by mom when we opened the door.

"Hey kids." She said to us with a warm smile.

She then saw the groceries in Marcus' hand.

"Oh, thanks Marcus," she told him. "It's greatly appreciated."

He smiled at her.

"What happened there?" She asked, pointing to his side, which he was clutching.

We looked at each other. We didn't want to lie to mom.

"We got robbed." I told her.

"Oh my gosh, are you kids okay?!" She asked frantically.

"We're fine," Marcus told her. "But they took the leftover cash and an earthbender hit me with his bending."

"Forget the money." She said. "Come inside, your father can help heal that hit."

"It's fine." Marcus responded. "I'm almost as good at healing as he is."

"Okay," she asked warily. "Yell if you need me."

Once inside, the three of us sat in silence.

"I need some air." I told them.

Before they could respond, I ran out of the backyard door into the woods next to the house.

I didn't think about it.

I just kept running.

Finally, when my legs couldn't take it anymore, I stopped and fell to my knees.

What was I thinking?

I'm not a real Avatar, I can't protect the world on my own. I'm nothing like Avatar Kiana.

A tear went down my cheek.

"But you could be." A woman's voice said in front of me.

I looked up in surprise and a beautiful woman, maybe in her late twenties, standing in front of me.

I suddenly recognized her.

"Avatar Kiana?"

She nodded.

"Please, call me Key."

"How are you...?"

"I am merely a spirit, Kybo, one that only you can see." She responded. "Your not going to become a good Avatar by sitting down and crying, stand up."

I stood up.

Then she gestured towards a boulder in front me.

"Keep striking that boulder with firebending." She told me. "Pour you heart and soul into every strike, don't stop until you either destroy the boulder, or you collapse from exhaustion. If you collapse from exhaustion, then come back the next day and try again. Keep going until the boulder is destroyed. Once your done, let your siblings help you train further."

"Can't you just train me?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"Again, I am merely a spirit, Kybo, I can't train you, at least, not like a living person."

I nodded.

"Well?" She asked. "What are you waiting for?"

Then, when I blinked, she was gone.

Well, I guess it was time to get to work.

Then I started striking the boulder with blasts of fire over and over.

* * *

**_Two weeks later..._**

For two weeks straight, I kept up what Avatar Kiana, sorry, Key, told me to do. At this point, Marcus has served his suspension and went to school again.

After Marcus would drive us back from school, I would immediately go outside and unleash on the boulder, then come back in time for dinner.

I found that doing this was actually making my firebending much better.

My fire blasts were bigger and I also learned to make more condensed fire blasts for more destructive power.

I even recently learned how to make fire blooms, which is basically just pouring out as much fire as possible to envelop the opponent.

But the boulder still hadn't been destroyed.

It was partially melted, plus I knew it was weaker now, but not destroyed.

Today, I was dead set on destroying that stone.

After attacking it for about three hours, almost giving up.

I finally threw one last condensed fireball at it, planning on calling it quits for the day after that, it was almost dinner time.

I was about to walk away, when I noticed something on the boulder.

A crack.

I realized then, that this rock was not impenetrable, I could destroy it.

I was not going to leave it like this.

I started to build up as much power as I could and released a giant fire bloom, focusing on the crack.

I saw through the flames that the crack was slowly expanding, and it kept expanding.

I intensified the blast, but I felt it sapping away at my energy as the crack grew bigger.

No, I was going to destroy this rock.

With a primal yell, I released all the energy I had left.

Finally, the crack finally reached the edge of the stone and it split in half.

Suddenly, I felt my vision blur as the exhaustion crashed down on me.

Then everything went dark.

* * *

**_Later..._**

I woke up in the house on my bed with mom standing over me and dad using healing water on me.

I slowly sat up.

"Kybo, we found you passed out in the woods." Dad said to me. "We came looking for you when you didn't come for dinner. We saved you some."

"Oh, I must have lost track of time and passed out." I told them.

The reality set in.

I destroyed the rock.

I could hardly keep a grin from my face.

"What?" Mom asked.

I quickly dropped my smile, but it wasn't easy.

"Nothing, I just, um, remembered that you were making beef sandwiches today." I lied to them. "Um, I need to see Marcus and Joy."

Then I rushed out of the room.

Mom looked at dad.

"We made pig-chicken pork today, not beef sandwiches." She told him.

He shrugged.

"Adolescents." He told her.

Once I found Marcus and Joy, I took them outside until I found a good sized stump that was around three feet tall.

"Watch this." I told them as they looked at each other and shrugged.

I threw a blast fire towards it, shattering it.

They stepped back in surprise. Before the training, I would have only been able to torch it.

I turned toward them with a grin on my face. The training was so efficient.

"I feel like I've been living my whole life with an arm tied behind my back, now I feel so good." I told them enthusiastically.

"What did you do?" Joy asked.

"Firebent a rock until it was destroyed for two weeks." I told her like it was totally regular.

They both stared at me in disbelief.

"Now it's time to train my waterbending, you in?" I asked.

"Yes." Marcus said immediately.

"Heck yeah." Joy also said immediately.

* * *

**_Somewhere in Republic City..._**

"I got a hit." Darryl called over.

I walked over.

"What took so long?" I asked.

He looked at me.

"I had to look through the hospital records of everyone who went to the hospital that day _and _check their backgrounds." He said, slightly impatiently. "It's a process."

"That's fair." I responded. "What have you got?"

He pulled up a picture of a teenage boy.

"Meet Kybo, a firebending boy who matches the description your men told us afterwards." Darryl told me. "Supposedly, his mom was in labor right next to a dying Kiana. She gave birth right as Kiana flatlined."

"Background?" I asked.

"He has a waterbending father and a firebending mother." He told me. "He lives with his parents and two siblings in a house near the forest just outside Republic City."

"Good work." I said to him. Then I started to walk away.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

I turned toward him.

"To fish my old suit out of the closet." I said with a slight smile. "I got big fish to catch."

* * *

**_Outside Republic City..._**

"Catch." Marcus said as he launched a ball of water towards me.

I stopped it in midair and thinned it out and moved it through the air like a dragon in flight.

"Nice job." He told me with a slight smile.

Joy was sitting on a root of a nearby tree, pouting about not being able to help train.

"Why can't I help?" She asked me for the fourth time.

"I'm learning waterbending, your not a waterbender." I told her for the fourth time.

"Great," She said sarcastically. "Marcus goes down in history as the Avatar's waterbending teacher, and I'm his annoying little sister."

"No," I told her with a grin. "You can be my sidekick."

She responded by sticking her tongue out at me.

Then, she doubled over, clutching her head.

_Not again_, I thought.

We were about to help her out, when we heard a scream coming from the house.

Mom's scream.

We ran towards the house at top speed, Marcus having to carry Joy because her headache was so bad.

Once we arrived at the house, we saw mom and dad fighting some dark figure inside the house.

The dark figure was wearing some kind of black and red armor that covered his entire body besides his hands, and he was a firebender. A very powerful one.

Our parents' fighting was in vain, the weaker attacks did little to no damage to the armor, since my parents weren't master benders, and the stronger attacks got countered or parried.

"Leave them alone!" I yelled.

He turned toward me and his eyes settled on me for a moment.

"Run!" Dad yelled.

The man pulled his fist back, ready to shoot a fire blast.

I shut the back door in front of me just as he shot a powerful fire blast.

The blast blew open the door and almost the entire wall and the three of us were thrown back, along with dozens of wooden shards.

We landed with an thud, my ears ringing from the explosion, my side throbbing from the landing.

I then looked over towards my siblings.

Marcus looked a little worse for wear, but Joy was screaming in pain, not because of the landing, because of the headache.

I had never seen her headache be this bad.

The armored man walked out towards, focused on me, but also a little curious about Joy, who was screaming bloody murder.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion.

Joy shot, what looked like a beam of shimmering air that sparked a few times, out of her forehead. When it hit the armored man, there was a deafening explosion that sent him flying back into the house.

After that happened, Joy stopped screaming.

We all stayed silent for a moment until mom called out to us.

"Go!" She yelled.

We didn't need to be told twice. We all ran to dad's Satomobile.

Marcus got in the driver's seat, I got in the passenger seat, and Joy got in the back seat.

Marcus hit the gas and we went hurtling forward.

We had no idea where we were going, we just knew where we weren't.

"Joy, what did you just do?" I asked.

"I don't know!" She yelled, clearly stressed by this whole ordeal. "I just, felt like the scorching heat inside of my head wanted to come out, so I let it out."

With that, we sat in silence as we kept driving.

* * *

**_Somewhere in Republic City..._**

"Tell us where they are." I demanded.

The boy's mom and dad were tied up in front of me.

"Clearly you're not a parent," the father told me. "Because no parent would chose themselves over their kids."

He was right. They weren't going to give them up.

"Well," I said to them as I turned my back toward them. "If you can't find the fish, then use bait."

They both started thrashed in their restraints.

"Who do you think you are?!" The mother yelled.

I turned back towards them.

"I am the leader of the most powerful crime syndicate in history." I told them. "The Red Star."

* * *

**Well, I did say I had big plans for this chapter. I hope you liked it, I will post these chapters weekly, so I hope you stick around. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	4. Solutions

**Well guys, I hope you like this chapter. Enjoy.**

**-Apollo**

* * *

**_Inside of Central City..._**

As we kept driving, we discussed what to do next.

"We should just lay low." Marcus told us.

"No!" I quickly said. "We should get out of Republic City, I get stronger, then we go back and I whoop that guy's metal heinie."

"Why don't we just let the police do their jobs?" Joy asked me.

I glared at Joy, not really in the mood for her.

"In case you haven't noticed," I told her sarcastically. "That guy could have turned our house into a smoking crater if he felt like it."

"Which is exactly why we should lay low, Kybo." Marcus told me. "If the police can't do it, than what can we do, a bunch of kids?"

"The difference, Marcus, is that one of those kids is the Avatar." I retorted.

"Well, if you actually were useful, than mom and dad wouldn't have either taken or killed!" He yelled back to me.

We all sat in silence.

"We need allies." He told me. "Someone who knows about what we are dealing with."

I thought for a moment.

"The guy who came was clearly after me." I said to myself and my siblings. "The only other people who saw me waterbend besides you two were the thugs."

Marcus nodded.

"That means that this isn't just some lone guy, this must be some kind of organized group." He followed up.

The anger at Marcus for what he said earlier vanished as we started to get a better perspective on what we were fighting.

"Let's stop to eat." Marcus told us.

"But we need money." I told him.

He held up a wallet.

Dad's wallet.

"Dad's tendency to leave things in his car paid off." He said with a sideways grin.

Joy and I smiled from ear to ear.

Soon, we had stopped at a restaurant with a sports bar, which mostly showed pro-bending matches, and we each ordered a burger with spicy curly fries.

As we were eating, we heard something on the TV.

"Breaking News, a mysterious group of people with a red star logo on their shoulders, tried to ransack a spirit garden." The reporter said. "But it was stopped by the Red Spirit and the other mysterious woman. Here's some helicopter footage."

The screen switch over to a zoomed in recording that was taken from a helicopter.

It was nighttime and a couple helicopter spotlights were trained on some men, who were hacking away at spirit vines, but they didn't care.

There were about ten men. All in black uniforms with a five pointed red star logo. It took a moment for me to recognize one of them as one of the large thugs that tried to rob us.

Suddenly, a man in a red mask that had pointed ears and long teeth appeared.

One of the thieves threw a blast of fire towards him, but the man swiftly leaped over it. The man, who we now guessed was the Red Spirit, closed the distance and delivered multiple quick jabs.

The thief tried to firebend again, but it didn't work, then he got kicked hard in the chest and landed on his back.

I recognized this as chi-blocking.

The other thieves were about to launch a combined bending attack, but, suddenly, they were hit from an air blast from the side, toppling many of them.

A spotlight revealed a girl, or woman? I don't know, it's hard to tell because of her costume. She was less flashy than the Red Spirit, having black pants, a black hoodie, and had one piece of cloth wrapped around her nose and mouth, and another wrapped around her forehead, she had short, dark hair.

She fired another sustained blast of air to hold the group of thieves at bay as the Red Spirit advanced and chiblocked four of them before leaping back.

Someone finally launched a blast of fire at the girl in black, forcing her to go on the defensive and drop the gust she was unleashing.

Meanwhile, an earthbender thief fired a volley of rocks at the Red Spirit. He responded by taking out twin swords, which were sheathed at his hip, and started slashing or dodging all of them.

Then, the Red Spirit fired out a metal coil, the same kind that the police force use, and tripped up the earthbender.

The girl in black had already taken care of the firebender who attacked her by sending him flying into a tree with an air blast.

In no time, the remaining four thieves were knocked out or injured.

The helicopter that has filming lowered itself down further, maybe thirty feet off the ground to get a better look.

The duo turned and saw the helicopter, but not before the cloth on the girl's head flew off because of the wind the helicopter was creating.

And it revealed a blue arrow tattoo.

She quickly covered it and they ran out into the darkness.

Then the recording stopped.

The reporter started talking about random stuff going on in the fire nation when we all looked at each other.

"Well, I guess we have an opportunity that presented itself." I said.

After we finished up, we found a cheap hotel room for three and rented it. Then we talked.

"We need to find them." I told them. "They could be our best shot at getting our parents back."

Marcus nodded.

"But where do we find them?" Joy asked.

"We saw that the girl in black had and arrow on her head." Marcus said.

Joy looked at him for clarification.

"It's a sign of mastery amongst airbenders." Marcus answered.

Joy slowly nodded.

"Mastering airbending isn't something that happens overnight." I said. "It takes years of practice."

"Exactly, and she seems like a teenager." Marcus replied. "Airbenders don't leave their nation until they are eighteen or a parent from a different nation takes them. So, since she has the mastery tattoos, she has to live in an air temple, otherwise, she wouldn't have the tattoos. It has to be a nearby air temple."

I thought for a minute.

"The Western Air Temple." I told them. "It's a half-hour plane ride."

Marcus rubbed his hands together.

"If we get their, it will be easy to spot out a teenage girl with mastery tattoos, since that doesn't usually happen and the airbender population is so little." Marcus told us. "If we find her, we find the Red Spirit."

I smiled, glad to have gotten somewhere.

"We're going to the Western Air Temple." I said flatly. "But first, let's get some sleep."

Marcus and I got up and started walking towards our beds when Joy spoke up.

"Wait." Joy said, gaining our attention. "If it's this easy for us to find her, don't you think other people will try to find her?"

Marcus and I looked at each other, knowing that she is right.

We went to sleep thinking about that.

* * *

**_Somewhere in Republic City..._**

Darryl walked up to me, telling me some information he inferred.

"I think she must be a teenage girl from the Western Air Temple, the mastery tattoos confirm it." He told me. "There is only one problem."

"What is it?" I asked, slightly impatient.

"The air nomads don't use technology." He told me. "So they aren't in any kind of database."

I thought for a moment.

"Well, I guess it is time to contact an old friend." I told Darryl.

"Your air nomad contact?" Darryl asked.

"He's more than just an ordinary contact." I told him. "He helped me kill Avatar Kiana."

* * *

**This was a fun chapter to make and I hope you liked it. Peace.**

**-Apollo**


	5. The Red Spirit

**Hi guys, this chapter will atart to progress in the storyline. I hope you are going to enjoy this. Thanks.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_On a plane overseas..._**

We were about ten minutes away from the Western Air Temple, being crammed on a small, ten person propeller plane which was meant for shorter distances like this.

We decided not to talk about what we were planning on doing because other people were sitting close to them on the plane.

We touched down on the runway without a problem and disembarked. The island that held the Western Air Temple didn't have a full airport because the Air Nomads refrained from using technology.

As we were walking away, a passenger, who was a middle aged woman, called out to us.

"Hey, what are you kids doing here all alone." She said with a friendly voice and a raised eyebrow.

Luckily, Marcus has it under control.

"We're meeting our parents here, we could fit on one flight." He said to her. "Our parents trusted me with these little rascals, he said, ruffling both of our hair.

She smiled and nodded.

"Well, have a good time." She told us with a smile.

"You too." Marcus told her back.

When she walked away, we all sighed in relief.

That was a close one.

The Air Temple was in the distance, so we decided to walk there.

When we got their, we were welcomed by a pleasant sight.

It was small village at the foot of the temple that had people walking around, doing their business, such as buying food, and a group of children playing with each other using airbending.

A stocky man with a shaved head, a dark facial hair, and blue arrow tattoos saw us and approached.

"I'm assuming your tourists?" He guessed.

We looked at him a bit confused.

"Your clothing." He replied to to our silent question.

We looked down at our clothes and saw why.

Marcus was wearing a blue hoodie and dark pants, Joy was wearing a bright red long sleeve t-shirt with maroon pants, and I was wearing a maroon hoodie and black pants.

He smiled warmly.

"Welcome." He said to us. "The name's Chuck. We always love having people interested in our way of life. If you want, I can show you around."

We all looked at each other and it seemed that we unanimously agreed.

"Sounds good." I said to Chuck with a smile.

"Alright, right this way." He told us, gesturing to follow him.

While we were walking, he talked about the Air Nomads' culture and we kept asking questions.

"It is kind of weird to call us nomads because we don't move around and not all of us are monks." He told us. "If a child is born with airbending, parents have the option to send them to live and train in the temple."

"Who governs this area?" I asked.

"The head monk or head nun, but they mostly run operations in the temple, they mostly let us handle ourselves." Chuck responded. "Our head nun only helps decide issues if there is a large dispute in the village."

"What about the descendants of Avatar Aang? Didn't some move to here?" I asked.

He nodded.

"You're right, some descendants did move here, specifically, the descendants of his grandchild, Jinora." He told us. "None of them like to brag about it because this nation isn't one to brag about feats that aren't our own."

"There are fourteen great great-grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, three grandchildren, and one child of Jinora still alive today." He continued. "As a matter of fact, her only living son, Master Kaze, is actually the leader of the White Lotus."

I nodded, impressed by his knowledge.

"How do you know so much?" I asked.

He turned towards me.

"Because I am part of the airbending council." He said with a grin. "I have also trained the more airbenders than anyone here."

_Wow_, I thought.

We were actually in front of a true airbending master.

I snapped out of my daze.

"Can we go in the temple?" I asked.

"They usually keep tourists away." He told us.

I decided to find a different excuse for going in the temple.

"I thought I might see the training grounds." I lied to him, feeling bad about it.

He thought for a moment.

"Okay, I believe it's empty." He told us. "It's at the top of temple, don't intrude on the other airbenders."

I nodded and we began to walk towards the temple.

Once we got their, we located a meditation room, we managed to get a peek inside without anyone seeing us to look for the mystery girl.

We saw multiple airbenders of all ages, who didn't see us because their eyes were closed, but none matched the description of the mystery girl.

We peeked into another room by cracking open the door and found a good match.

A girl about my age with pale skin, shoulder length blond hair, and a blue arrow tattoo on her forehead was sitting alone in the room, meditating.

Then, she suddenly started to open her eyes, but didn't see us, since we quickly closed the door.

We heard her standing up and walking towards the door, so we ducked around a corner to stay hidden.

We saw her walk out and through the corridors until we followed her to, what we guessed was her room.

Once she closed the door, we waited about five minutes before we walked towards he door.

We thought we heard a heated argument inside of the room just before we knocked.

It went silent when we knocked and she opened the door.

She looked a little confused.

"I thought that tourists couldn't come up here?" She asked.

"Sorry," I told her. "We just thought we would ask you something."

She still looked puzzled, but decided to play along.

"Okay, what's up?" She asked us.

"Were you in Republic City recently?" I asked.

Suddenly, she snapped into attention.

"No, not at all." She said quickly.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

Instead of denying it again, she called towards someone in her room.

"They're here! Get your gear, we have to go!" She yelled towards someone in her room.

She quickly pulled her staff towards her with airbending and used it to send a blast of air towards us, pinning us against the wall.

Then, she ran down the halls at top speed, and then we saw the Red Spirit, mask and all, run out of the room after her.

We now all knew for a fact that she was the mystery girl.

We ran after the two, following them to the top of a spiral staircase, but it was hard because of the Red Spirit's agility and the enhanced speed of the airbender girl.

When we got to the top, we saw that we were at the training area, which was on the roof. It was completely bare except for a fountain in the middle.

There they were, having a heated conversation near the fountain, which we were able to hear.

"Go." The Red Spirit said in a deepened voice. "Use your glider."

"I'm not leaving without you." The girl responded.

Then they saw us as we approached.

"We're not going to attack you, we want to talk." I told them.

They clearly didn't believe me because the Red Spirit rushed forward.

In the blink of an eye, he chiblocked Joy and judo threw her into the fountain.

Then all hell broke loose.

The Red Spirit lashed out with his metal police coil (literally) and aimed it at Marcus.

Marcus parried it with a water whip and a whip versus whip battle ensued.

Meanwhile, the girl sent a blast of air towards me, pushing me back.

I guess I have to resort to bending.

She sent another air blast towards me, which I dodged and returned fire with a fireball.

She easily leaped over it and unslung her staff, which she used to send a wave of air in my direction, causing me to topple over.

Meanwhile, after the Red Spirit unsuccessfully tried to whip Marcus, he retracted his coil and took out his swords.

Marcus responded by surrounding both arms with water and freezing them into icicles, advancing towards him.

While I was distracted, she hit me with another air blast, causing me to slide further across the training grounds.

She leapt up in the air and activated her glider, soaring towards me.

I decided to do something I hadn't done before. I forced fire out of the bottom my foot, causing me to shoot upwards.

It was wobbly and faster than I wanted it to be, and I think I burned holes through the bottom of my shoes, but it did what I wanted it to do.

Now that I was higher up than she was, I kicked out with both feet, creating a larger fireball that slammed into the back of her glider.

She started to fall, so I fell downwards and used the same trick to slow my landing.

Not wanting her to get hurt, I created a large water whip from the fountain water and used it to catch her, lowering her to the ground and letting the burning glider shatter on the ground.

She looked stunned when she saw me waterbending, ceasing her attack to stare.

"Your...? She started to ask.

"Yes." I told her, responding to her unfinished question. "We're here to help."

She slowly nodded and I started to explain what we were doing.

Meanwhile, Marcus has managed to disarm the Red Spirit of one sword but the Red Spirit's skill put him on the defensive, forcing him to turn his icicles into an ice shield.

The Red Spirit started raining blows on the shield, slowly doing damage. Then, he stabbed his sword through the shield, barely missing Marcus' arm, then started pushing it towards his face, causing Marcus to groan with effort to hold him back.

"Hey." Said a voice about twenty feet away from the other two.

The Red Spirit turned to see Joy.

"You forgot the head." She told him.

Suddenly, she shot the same beam of shimmering air that she fired at the man in the metal suit when he attacked the house.

It exploded at his side, throwing him through the air, away from Marcus, causing him to land with a crash flat on his back.

The airbending girl and I jumped between the three.

"Stop!" She yelled.

We all calmed down and waited for someone to talk.

Finally, the airbending girl spoke up.

"Dante, take your mask off." She told the Red Spirit.

"Don't say my name." He told her.

"He's the Avatar." She said whole pointing towards me.

It was hard to tell, but I guessed his eyes widened.

Then he took off his mask after a moment, revealing a boy about Marcus' age with tan skin, tousled brown hair, and a hardened look on his face.

"This is Dante, my older cousin," the girl told us, pointing to the boy. "And I'm Pema."

"I'm Kybo." I responded. "And these are my siblings, Joy and Marcus."

Joy gave a slight smile and a wave, but Marcus still looked a little mad at Dante for attacking him.

Pema sensed this and spoke up.

"Sorry for attacking you." She told us apologetically. "We thought that you were members of the Red Star. Since my arrow was revealed on the news, we knew it was a matter of time before they found us. We were arguing about it when you guys knocked on our door."

"The Red Star?" Marcus asked, clearly curious.

"The group of people that we fought on the news." Pema told us. "But they are much more than just thugs. They have members in every important organization, they are international, and they have access to powerful technology."

"Why haven't you contacted the police?" Joy asked.

She turned towards Joy.

"Did you miss the part that they have members in every important organization?" Pema responded. "This includes the police force, even the White Lotus."

_Wow_, I thought, _this goes deeper than I thought._

"How do you know this?" I asked.

The two looked at each other, having a silent conversation, then, Dante nodded.

"Dante has a rare airbending ability that was passed down from our great great-grandmother, Jinora, even though he can't bend regular air." She responded. "The ability allows him to create a spiritual projection, which is when he can have a literal out of body experience to see places that others can't. This involves a strong spiritual connection and a _lot_ of discipline."

"Why are you fighting the Red Star?" I asked, raining questions on her.

"Your going to start answering questions after this, but I'll tell you." She responded. "They killed Dante's parents."

Dante looked down at the ground.

"Now why are _you_, trying to take down the Red Star?" She asked.

"Some firebender in a metal suit stormed our house and kidnapped our parents just a couple weeks after I found out I was the Avatar." I told them. "We barely got out with our lives."

"I'm sorry." She told me in sympathy. "The good news is that they are probably still alive. They probably still have use for them."

That was reassuring.

Then she her eyes widened.

"Wait, a firebender in a metal suit?" She asked. "That's one of the leaders of the Red Star! He has the most power of the leaders, so he is basically the main leader of the Red Star. He goes by the code name, Pyro. The other leaders are called Zephyr, Terra, and Flood. He killed Avatar Kiana, along with the other leaders, he uses special technology to increase his firebending."

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded.

"The code names are a little flashy." I responded.

With that, Pema asked another question.

"You just found out you were the Avatar two weeks ago?" She asked.

"Yeah, I used waterbending to defend us against some muggers." I told them. "I trained hard in secret afterwards."

"Also, why did you look for us?" She included.

"We need allies." I told her.

She was about to say something when all of us were hit with a large gust of wind, causing us to land on our sides and backs.

We looked and saw Chuck with three other airbenders on either side of him.

"You're coming with us." He said.

"What did we do?" I asked.

"Nothing to the air nomads, but to my organization, you are wanted." Chuck told us.

"Organization?" I asked.

I looked towards Pema and Dante to see that their eyes were widened, clearly understanding.

"Chuck, how could you?!" Pema yelled at him. "How could you join the Red Star?! Being a minion?!"

"I'm much, much more than just a minion, Pema." He responded.

I suddenly understood, Chuck was traitor this entire time.

I wasn't liking our odds. The five of us could probably defeat Chuck by himself, but not against all of them.

Joy responded by shooting another beam of shimmering air out of her forhead into the line of airbenders.

They all blocked it with a combined shield of air, but it caused a distraction.

Pema looked at us, surprised.

"She's a combustionbender?!" She asked, but she quickly realized that this wasn't the time for questions.

Pema let out a sharp whistle and, suddenly, a large sky bison appeared.

We quickly climbed on him and started to fly off.

We felt a pull from behind and saw that the group of Red Star airbenders we're trying to pull them in.

I sent a fire blast, Pema sent an air blast, and Joy sent a forehead blast towards them, which forced them to release their hold.

Then we kept flying and didn't turn back.

* * *

**_Back on the Air Temple..._**

I put a finger on my ear, activating my comm line.

"The Avatar was here as well, they got away." I told the guy on the other end, not wanting to say his name for fear of someone else listening in.

"What?!" He frantically asked. "How?"

"They got away on Pema's sky bison." I told him. "Also, the little firebending girl was a combustionbender."

"Ah, so that is what she did when I was at their house." He said, more to himself than to me.

"Well, find them, Chuck." He ordered.

"Listen, you don't get to order me around," I responded. "You may have more power, but you aren't the only leader of the Red Star."

I heard him sigh.

"You're right, I shouldn't be treating an old friend like that." He told me.

"So, that's what we are?" I asked him.

"Well, you _did _help me kill Avatar Kiana fifteen years ago." He reminded me.

"You thought I forgot?" I responded gruffly. "I think it's time we use our surprise weapon."

* * *

**This was a very long chapter, but I enjoyed making it. I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading. Peace. **

**-ApollotheNinja**


	6. On the Run

**Hope you like this chapter. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_In the sky over the ocean..._**

We flew as quick as possible, trying to evade capture.

Dante decided to take the reins of the bison to let Pema rest.

We were gloomily silent this whole time.

I looked over at my siblings, who were just watching the ocean go by.

Then I looked over at Pema. She looked even more gloomy than the rest of us. I think I knew why.

"Chuck trained you, didn't he?" I asked her.

She looked up at me.

"Yeah." She said flatly. "He was like a fun, uncle figure to me."

She sighed.

"Has anyone ever betrayed you like that?" She asked me.

"No." I told her. "And I hope no one ever does."

"Hope isn't a strategy, Kybo." She responded.

I sighed, knowing she was right.

"Do you know anyone that we _can _trust, that can help us?" I asked her.

"I don't know for certain, but I have some good idea's." She told me. "Master Kaze, the leader of the White Lotus and Master Jinora's son. He is wise and kind and can help us expel the Red Star. There's also groups of people dedicated to the Avatar, like the Fire Sages."

I thought for a minute.

"The Fire Nation is the closest nation, so maybe we can find the Fire Sages there." I told her. "But they are on Cresent Island, so if we are going to find them, we have to double back towards the other side of the Fire Nation."

"I'm going to tell Dante." Pema told me.

She crawled across the saddle and started talking to Dante.

"We think we can find some allies in the Fire Nation, on Cresent Island." She told him. "I'll take the reins and you get some rest."

"No," he said flatly. "I'll take the reins and fly Kuki to the Fire Nation, you get some rest."

Pema seemed to want to argue, but he flashed her a stern look, plus she saw that the sun was setting.

"Fine." She said reluctantly.

Then she crawled back towards the back of the saddle where she was before.

"So, you named your sky bison, Kuki?" I asked with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

"Shut up." She told me with a sideways grin.

**_Later..._**

It was around midnight when we finally saw an island close to the horizon.

Cresent Island.

I was about to whoop for joy when I felt something coming at us from behind.

I saw a massive stream of flames coming at us illuminated the night as it hurtled towards us.

Pema quickly created a shield of air and I held my hands out to try and split it down the middle.

We managed divert the flames to either side of us, causing it so singe some of Kuki's hair.

We looked in the distance to see what had fired that.

In the distance we just barely saw the shape of a man.

He was riding something that fired another fire blast at us, which Joy, Pema, and I countered with a forehead blast, air blast, and fire blast, causing a massive, fiery explosion.

When the beast had shot the fire blast, we saw what it was.

Around five hundred feet away was a dragon.

It was monstrous in size, was blood red and had a thunderous roar.

"Take the reins." Dante told Marcus. "I think I can do something that can help."

Even though Marcus didn't know how to fly a sky bison, he nodded and took the reins. Dante sat criss-cross and closed his eyes.

He's meditating? Now?

I suddenly understood why when a blue projection of Dante appeared in front of his body.

"I'm going to get a better look." He told us. "I'll also buy some time."

His projection disappeared as the dragon shot another fire blast, which Pema and I countered with a combined blast of air and fire.

We looked over towards the dragon to see the glowing blue shape of Dante's projection.

In a flash, he reappeared next to us again.

"The dragon had been whipped, and he is chained." Dante told us. "We can't hurt the dragon, he or she was forced to do this. I'm going to cause a distraction."

He disappeared once more and reappeared in front of the dragon.

Suddenly, his glow heavily intensified, almost as if he was the sun, but blue.

The dragon started thrashing around blindly (literally), and the eyes on Dante's physical body opened as soon as his projection disappeared.

"I temporarily blinded the dragon." He told us, then turned towards Pema. "Pema, bend some clouds around us. We'll disguise ourselves as a cloud until they leave."

She did just that, and, soon enough, we were waiting inside of a dense cloud, not being able to see a foot in front of us.

We heard their noises come close, close enough to hear them.

"You insolent beast." The man yelled. "You lost them!"

The dragon let out a loud growl in response.

"None of that." He told the dragon. "A certain someone will pay the price if you don't do what we say."

That shut the dragon up.

Then we heard them fly off.

We all let out a sigh of relief.

"We should still maintain the cloud cover." Marcus called out in the dense mist. "We'll drop down once we think we're over land."

We all agreed and Dante took the reins again.

I then heard Pema speak up.

"Joy, I'm surprised you have so much control over your combustionbending." Pema said aloud, not knowing where she is because of the mist. "Most people could lose limbs if they did what you did."

"Yeah," Joy responded. "You were talking about that before, can you elaborate?"

"Combustionbending is an extremely rare firebending technique." Pema told her. "Might be the rarest form of bending ever. It involves firing a ray of concentrated heat and detonating it. It's usually best to get a tattoo on your forehead to give you a designated place to concentrate it."

"Hmm..." Joy said to herself. "I kind of like the idea of a tattoo, it'll probably look sick."

Just like Joy to be more thrilled about a tattoo than having a one in a million technique that can level a hut.

"That explains your headaches." I told Joy.

"Headaches?" Pema asked.

"She has always had horrible headaches." I explained. "But instead of a piercing pain, it's a scorching heat. It also explains why doctors couldn't find anything."

"Hmm... interesting." Pema said to herself. "When was the first time she used it?"

"When the Red Star leader, what was his name, Pyro, attacked our house." I told her. "It was the only reason we got away."

"You got really lucky." Her voice said to me.

I nodded, but realized that it didn't make a difference because we couldn't see each other.

"I think we're over land." Dante told us.

Dante started lowering us at a slow rate until we were a few hundred feet off the ground, which is when he told Pema to release the cloud disguise.

We saw Cresent Island from above, realizing how it got it's name. It was in the shape of a cresent moon.

When we dropped the cloud disguise, we quickly flew down to avoid getting seen you the dragon and his rider.

We landed on a path when we heard a voice from behind us.

"What are you doing?" Came a man's voice.

We turned to see a man in his thirties, who we guessed was a fire sage, judging by his red robes.

I responded creating a ball of fire in one hand and creating a ball of water in another from a nearby puddle of water from a recent storm.

His eyes widened.

"The Avatar." He said to himself.

"Take us to the other sages." I asked him.

He nodded.

He began to escort us along the stone shore to the Fire Sages' temple, which was across the island, the six of us walking with Kuki lumbering behind us.

On the way there, we saw an old, charred pile of rubble.

"What's this?" Marcus asked the sage.

"Almost two hundred years ago, this used to be a temple, until Avatar Roku took control of Avatar Aang's body and destroyed it." The sage explained

"Why would he do that?" Pema asked.

"He was protecting Aang and his friends from a Fire Nation commander named Admiral Zhao, as well as the Fire Sages." He told us. "At the time, the Fire Sages were loyal to the Fire Lord, not the Avatar, and tried to attack him."

He looked over at the charred rubble.

"Good riddance I say." He told us.

Then we continued walking.

"We built a new temple in honor of Avatar Roku, making sure not to do what those past Sages did." He explained. "We have been loyal to the Avatar ever since."

"Well, that's good to know." I responded. "We've been chased by a criminal organization, the Red Star."

At the sound of the name, he stopped cold and turned around.

"The Red Star?" He asked in surprise. "They stole our only adult dragon and her baby."

Well, that explains a lot.

We then walked over a hill and saw the temple not far off.

It was a grand temple. Clearly being at least ten floors. It had statues of dragons along the outside and a statue of Avatar Roku with his dragon, Fang, encircling him.

Once we were escorted inside the temple (Kuki was left outside), we were greeted by four other sages, all of various ages and all men.

"What are these kids doing here, Thomas?" A sage, maybe in his sixties asked the sage escorting us, who we now knew was named Thomas.

"He's the Avatar." Thomas said flatly as he gestured towards me, causing a couple of the other sages to gasp.

"The Avatar?" The older sage asked. "How can you be so sure?"

"He bent both fire and water." Thomas explained. "He's also seems like the right age.

The older sage considered this for a moment.

"I believe you, Thomas." He said, then walked towards me.

"I'm Kane, good to meet you." He told me with a warm smile.

"I'm Kybo." I responded, then I gestured towards the other four. "And these are Marcus, Joy, Dante, and Pema."

He did a standard Fire Nation bow.

"Pleased to meet you." He told them. "You were wise to trust us. Come, I'm sure you must be hungry."

Our stomachs grumbled because we realized that we hadn't had dinner.

We all nodded enthusiastically.

During a hearty meal of roasted beef and green beans, along with mashed potatoes, we explained everything that happened, how I discovered I was the Avatar, the attack on our parents, the betrayal of Chuck, and the dragon.

"So they are enslaving our eldest dragon, Kioshi?" Kane asked. "Horrible."

"Kioshi?" I asked. "Like the Avatar?"

Kane nodded.

"Yes, we nicknamed them after different Avatars, but we don't give them true names." He explained to us. "Giving them a true name would require ownership. We don't own the dragons. We just care for them. _We _basically serve _them_."

He wiped his mouth with a napkin and stood up.

"I have something for you once you finish up." Kane told me.

We quickly finished up and eagerly followed him.

We exited the temple, leaving the other sages behind, and walked to a beautiful garden area.

Curled up in the middle is what looked like a red serpent.

With wings.

It swerved around to face us to reveal his bearded, menacing face.

It was a dragon.

He was quite big, but I could see he wasn't fully grown, less than half the size of his mom, yet he was still imposing. His serpentine body had to be about four feet wide and he was about thirty or thirty five feet long, being a few feet longer than Kuki. He was at least six or seven tons.

"We call him Roku." Kane told us. "We managed to hide him before the Red Star took both his mother, Kioshi, and his little brother, Aang. He is old enough to live without his mom, but isn't an adult yet. A fully grown dragon can be seventy feet long and weight about fourty tons. He descended from the last two dragons, Ran and Shaw, who were much bigger than regular dragons. While we call him Roku for specification purposes, you can call him whatever you want."

Wait, did this mean what I think it means.

I turned towards Kane.

"I can have him?" I asked.

"Yes, we planned on giving him to the Avatar if we found him." Kane explained. "And since you are here, you can have him."

I slowly reached out, trying to put a hand on his head. He allowed me and released a low rumble.

I didn't feel like naming after one of my past lives, so I started to think of something else.

The dragon suddenly lost patience for bush full of cicadas that had been screeching since we got here and blasted it with fire, turning it to ash, causing me to stumble back.

I suddenly knew a name.

"Cinder." I said aloud.

Kane nodded.

"Good name." He told me. "You can stay as long as you want, we'll get all of you a nice room and a good night's sleep. We can help you bond with Cinder and I can train you further in fire bending."

All of us ideas sounded good, so we followed him back to the temple.

* * *

**I hope you like Kybo's new companion. This was a fun chapter to make and I hope you are still enjoying this story. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	7. The Fire Sages

**Last chapter, we were introduced to Cinder, the newest member of the most recent Team Avatar. Anyways, I hope you like this chapter. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_In the Western Air Temple..._**

I saw Monk Tristan flying back on the dragon towards the temple in the shroud of night, so I met him in forest next to the temple.

"Well, what happened?" I asked him.

"Sorry Master Chuck, they got away." Tristan responded. "Dante knew how to, I don't know how to describe it, leave his body. He blinded the dragon and I. They slipped away."

Took me a minute to decipher what he told me.

"So, he can project his spirit? I guess that is another thing that Pema and Dante kept from us." I said, more to myself than him.

The dragon let out a low growl.

"Listen dragon," I warned her, not bothering calling her by her name. "We have your child, so I wouldn't think about doing that."

She stopped growling, but she seemed like she wanted to torch me.

I then returned to conversing with Tristan.

"What should we do?" He asked me.

I thought for a moment.

"I guess I should get my armor." I told him. "Use the Red Star's resources to find them.

"Should the other masters come?" Tristan asked.

"No, one master leaving for a day won't attract attention." I replied. "But seven leaving at the same time will raise some eyebrows."

He nodded and scurried off.

* * *

**_One week later on Cresent Island..._**

After a week of training, my firebending skills skyrocketed, Kane even told me I could be a master in another couple months.

Cinder and I clicked together like a puzzle piece. Through interacting with Cinder, I discovered that we had very similar personalities. I also learned from Kane that, in dragon years, Cinder was my age.

While training with Cinder, I learned that our relationship has to be mutual. He does what I want and I do what he wants. We do this because dragons are one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet, possibly more than sky bisons, primates, and multiple others.

After a tough day's work, the sun now setting. I decided to go on a flight with Cinder.

"Hey." Said a voice from behind me as I was mounting

I turned and saw that it was Pema.

"Hey Pema." I told her. "What's up?"

"Riding on Cinder looks fun, I was wondering if I could join you." Pema responded.

I thought for a moment.

"Sure."

Normally, I would ask Cinder for permission to let her on, but I knew that Cinder had taken a liking to Pema.

Pema climbed on just behind me and wrapped her arms around my waist, causing me to blush a little bit.

"Let's go, Cinder." I told him.

Then he took off.

Flying on Cinder felt exhilarating as we flew, something that can't be replicated.

"Wanna go higher?" I asked Pema.

She nodded.

"What about you buddy?" I asked Cinder.

He let out a quick snort and started to soar upwards. We kept flying upwards, then leveled out once Cresent Island looked like a dinner plate below us.

Pema let out an excited whoop of pure exhilaration.

"Better than a sky bison, huh?" I asked her.

She quickly nodded.

I looked down at Cinder.

"I think we should start going down." I told Cinder.

He nodded and started to descend downwards.

Once we landed, we were greeted by Kane.

"Ah, I see that you had another evening flight, young Avatar." Kane told us, then turned towards Pema. "With a friend."

He then approached us and stroked Cinder on the forehead.

"I think that Cinder's ambitious personality will mold well with your's." Kane told me. "I think that you should start learning to bend lightning tomorrow."

The idea of that excited me, so Pema and I jumped off Cinder and we left him in the garden area to nap while Kane escorted us back to the temple.

Ever since we met the Fire Sages, we have been treated like royalty and I was given intense training and Cinder. I couldn't be more relieved.

"Thanks for that." Pema told me, bringing me back to reality.

"No problem." I responded.

When we finally got back to the temple, we had another delicious dinner and we went back to our individual rooms.

When I payed in my bed, I remembered why we were here.

The Red Star.

I was here to train so I could take them down and get our parents back. But I couldn't shake a sense of urgency. This week has been too, safe, there hasn't been the same amount of danger as before.

I felt that something bad would happen.

I fell asleep thinking about that.

* * *

**_The Next Morning..._**

Kane and I were on a cliff side that overlooked the shore, practicing how to produce lightning, Cinder watching in interest.

"Alright, focus." Kane instructed me. "The most important part of lightning generation is focus. You have to clear your mind of turmoil and emotions."

I did as he said, I cleared my mind of all distractions, focusing on the training.

"Now, hold out two fingers on each hand." He instructed again.

I did just that.

"Imagine yourself pulling the pool of energy inside of you into two." Kane told me to do. "Then, direct it to the tips of the fingers of each of your hands."

This was trickier, but I tried to do what he said. I started to get a tingling feeling at the tips of my fingers, even though there wasn't any electricity.

That was probably a good sign.

"Now, put your fingers together and transfer the energy into one hand, then release it." Kane continued as he put his fingers together, then released a bolt of lightning into the distance.

I felt another tingling sensation as I felt the energy transfer to my right hand, which ended at my two fingers.

Then I released the energy.

It just made a few sparks.

I heard Cinder release few quick snorts, which sounded like a laugh.

"What did I do wrong?" I asked. "I did exactly as you said."

"You must have not been able to channel much energy." He told me. "You have to dig deep, channel as much energy as possible. You have channel enough energy so that it will be unleashed, not fizzle out like now. Try again."

I took a deep breath and tried to imagine pulling my energy in two, but it was like trying to hold something slippery.

I was starting to get angry when I finally pulled it in two.

I suddenly felt that I could not control it. It was too erratic.

"I can't control it!" I yelled as I felt it rushing up my arms.

The moment it reached my fingers, I was thrown back my a loud explosion.

Kane helped me up.

"Are you okay?" He asked as he offered his hand.

My ears were ringing and my vision was blurred, but everything started to clear up.

"Yeah." I told him as I let him pull me up.

"Let's just learn about controlling it before you draw out all the energy." Kane replied. "Try using half as much as you just did."

I nodded.

* * *

**_Later..._**

"Alright." Kane replied after about an hour of lightning training. "You're ready to bend lightning at full throttle.

I nodded and started to draw out as much energy as possible, Cinder watching in interest.

It was hard at first, but I remembered what Kane told me halfway through the training. Lightning was like a large dog on a leash that wants to be let loose. You have to hold it back until you're ready to release it.

I held the energy on my imaginary leash and held it steady until I spotted a decent sized rock.

Then I put my fingers together and released it.

The rock shattered.

"Woo hoo!" I yelled as I pumped my fist in the air.

"Well done, Avatar." Kane told me in satisfaction while clapping. "You have learned to use lightning, I've never seen anyone get it that quickly."

Suddenly, we heard a loud bell ringing from the temple. Unlike the dinner bell, this was harsh and frantic. Kane, Cinder, and I looked towards the temple to see a large blast of fire being sent up from the roof.

"What's that?" I asked Kane.

He looked at me gravely.

"Someone is attacking the temple." He responded.

I thought for a moment.

Marcus had been training on a different part of the island, Joy had gone for a walk, Marcus was meditating in the garden area, but Pema was still in the temple.

I snapped into focus and jumped on top of Cinder with Kane.

"Let's go." I told Cinder urgently.

He nodded and flew towards the temple at high speeds.

Once we got there, we saw Pema and the other sages fighting off a man in a metal suit. The suit was identical to the one used by the man who attacked my house, except the lights were white instead of red.

We was easily throwing around the sages with powerful airbending, Pema was harder to tag.

He was practically untouchable, leaping around with incredible agility. He extinguished any flames coming towards him and sliced through any air blasts from Pema.

"Sages, fire!" Kane yelled as we ran inside.

When the other sages got up, Kane, Cinder, the sages, and I shot a combined fire blast towards the man.

The flames enveloped him and I grinned from satisfaction.

But then I saw that he wasn't being consumed by flames, he had encased himself in an orb of air, protecting himself against the flames.

He fired a wave of air in all directions, tearing through the fire blasts, and throwing all of us, besides Cinder, in all directions. He then hit Cinder with a powerful gust of wind, knocking him down.

Who was this guy?

"Ah." The man said in a mostly robotic voice. "I finally found you Kybo."

How did he know my name?

It was only then that I realized the voice sounded familiar.

It took me a few moments to put two and two together, but Pema figured it out before me.

"Chuck?" She asked.

He turned towards her.

"Hello, Pema." He greeted her. "I did tell you I was more than a minion."

* * *

**I'm glad to have finished up this chapter. For you, this is the seventh chapter I've posted, but for me, this would be the last chapter I write in Document Manager before I post the first public chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	8. Zephyr

**Hey guys**,** I hope you like this chapter. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Inside of the Fire Sages' Temple..._**

After Chuck said this, Pema turned towards me.

"He's one of the Red Star leaders I told you about, Zephyr!" Pema called over.

"Good obserbvation, Pema." Chuck responded in his robotic voice.

Suddenly, Marcus, Dante, and Joy burst in, ready to fight. Meanwhile, the sages and Cinder began to push themselves back up.

"Well, this is unfair." He told us.

"Yeah, it's eleven against one." I told him, counting me, my friends, the five sages, and Cinder.

"I was talking about all of you." Chuck responded menacingly.

He began to create a tornado under his feet, and after a few seconds, he was on top of a twenty foot tall tornado.

Cinder flew straight towards Chuck, claws out, but Cinder was hit by a powerful air blast, which caused him a crash into a pillar, destroying it.

"Cinder!" I yelled.

Chuck then jumped off his tornado and, when he hit the ground, sent out a wave of air that sent us flying in various directions, knocking a couple sages unconscious.

He sent a sage flying upwards thirty feet, causing him to land roughly on the floor, unconscious, and sent one flying out of the door to the temple, just leaving Kane, my friends, and I.

Marcus sent a stream of water from a fountain, which Chuck stopped with an orb of wind.

"Kybo, lightning, now!" Kane called towards me.

I nodded and we both started conjuring lightning and launched it at Chuck while he was distracted with Marcus.

The bolts hit him full on, causing his suit to convulse and spasm.

"Hit'em, Joy." I told Joy with a grin.

She grinned back and fired a combustion blast.

This also hit, throwing Chuck into the wall behind him.

We thought that he was done, but then we saw him walk out of the smoke from the explosion.

He slashed the air with his hand, sending a wave of wind towards Kane, causing him to slide across the floor and hit the wall behind us.

Dante advanced, dodging a few air blasts, then slashing both of his blades.

The blades clashed against Chuck's armored arm and Dante got thrown back, hitting his head of a pillar he flew past and then slammed into Marcus.

Marcus got up, but Dante didn't.

Joy and I shot a combined fire blast, with Marcus and Pema adding air and water.

Chuck countered this with a gust of air, tearing through our combined attack and hitting us.

Joy, who was the weakest in terms of physical durability, got knocked out, the rest of us landing roughly.

Chuck was destroying us.

"Give up." Chuck told us.

Marcus made a feeble attempt to hit him with a water whip, but Chuck threw him up, then slammed him down, knocking him unconscious too.

It was just Pema and I.

Chuck then used airbending to pin me to the wall. Pema tried to hit him with multiple gusts of wind, but he easily blocked them and pulled Pema towards him.

"Pema!" I yelled.

Chuck used airbending to hold her in the air and created an air bubble around her head.

I was able to see the air he was pulling from her lungs.

He was killing her.

"Stop!" I yelled, still pinned to the wall.

If he heard me, he didn't show it, continuing to suffocate her.

I felt a sudden rage coursing through. Then, for some reason, Chuck choose to drop Pema and stare at me.

Through gasping breaths Pema managed to speak.

"Kybo, your eyes are glowing!" She called over.

I didn't respond, now focused on Chuck, rage filling me.

I shot fire out of me feet, using them like jets, launching myself forward straight towards Chuck.

When I got close, I hit him with a full-powered fire blast, causing him slide back.

When he looked up, I was upon him again, hitting him with another fire blast, throwing him back again towards the back wall.

Immediately when he touched the wall, bent the stone in the wall to surround him, pinning him to the it, letting only his head was exposed.

I ignored the fact that I just earthbent and flew just in front of Chuck, tearing off his helmet, him showing an expression resembling fear.

My fingers started crackling with electricity and I held them up to his face.

"Kybo, no!" Pema yelled.

I ignored her, continuing to build up lightning.

"He could be useful!" She yelled at me, now desperate. "He could help you get your parents back!"

That, I listened to.

I allowed the lighting to fizzle out.

Eyes still glowing, I closed my fist in a crushing manner, crushing the armor that Chuck was in without hurting him. I decided to leave him pinned to the wall because he was still dangerous without the suit.

I felt the power, as well as the rage, leave me as I lowered myself to the ground.

I looked towards Pema, also realizing that everyone else had awoken.

"What just happened?" I asked.

She looked at me with a mix of fear and awe.

"I think you entered the Avatar State." Pema responded.

The Avatar State.

I had never felt so powerful before.

I turned my attention towards Chuck.

"Where are my parents?" I demanded.

"Don't know, they aren't in my custody." He responded coolly.

My gut told me he was telling the truth, even though I hated him.

"What are the identities of the other leaders?" I demanded.

"Nice try." Chuck told us. "That could compromise this whole operation, I will not let the organization be destroyed, even if you threaten my life."

Dang it.

"How does your suit work?" I growled, now getting frustrated.

"Spirit vines." Chuck responded. "In injects is with it's sap, which increases our bending, the suit keeps us from exploding."

Well, that was pleasant.

"That's why the Red Star was attacking the spirit garden," Pema told me. "They were after the spirit vines."

Chuck nodded.

"Trust me, Kybo." Chuck told me. "I'm probably the nicest of the Red Star leaders."

"I find that hard to believe." I retorted.

"Believe it, Kybo." Chuck warned me. "The other leaders have done grisly acts that I wouldn't do."

That didn't sound good.

"Did you really help kill Avatar Kiana?" I asked him.

He paused for a moment, then nodded.

"Pyro let his hubris get the better of him, taking on Kiana by himself." Chuck told me. "He soon needed our help. It was a hard battle, but Pyro delivered the finishing blow."

I digested his answer for a moment before asking him a different question.

"How did the Red Star come to be?"

"It wasn't always the Red Star, it was actually called the Yellow Star at first." Chuck responded. "Almost two hundred years ago, Fire Lord Azulon created a task force to infiltrate the White Lotus, which was the Fire Nation's main opponent, and join their ranks. We were inside the White Lotus for more than a decade when Avatar Aang ended the war. Now without a nation, we just hid in the shadows, not knowing what to do, afraid to leave the White Lotus out of fear of getting caught."

"What changed?" I asked curiously.

"Seventy-five years after the war ended, we received guidance from a prisoner of the White Lotus, whom some of our members had to guard." Chuck told me. "His name was Zaheer, his organization, the Red Lotus, had been defeated a few years prior by Avatar Korra, but he helped us bloom into what we are today. So we became the Red Star, with Zaheer leading us while in prison. Since then, we have expanded our reach to the point where we're stronger than the Red Lotus."

I smelled something fishy going on.

"You are a lot of things, Chuck, but your not a coward." I inquired. "So why are you telling us this."

Suddenly, an explosion rang out outside.

He was stalling.

Joy ducked outside and ran back in.

"There are three airships outside!" Joy yelled.

"And I'm guessing they aren't here for negotiations?" Dante chimed in.

"You kids have to go." Kane urged.

"No." I said flatly.

"If the Red Star gets you now, they win, you have to go." Kane said. "We can try to hold them off."

I knew I wasn't going to win this conversation, so I nodded.

Marcus, Joy, Dante, Pema, and I ran outside to find a figure standing ten yards from us.

He had a similar suit to Chuck, but the light emitting from it was green.

With our swift movement, he telekinetically lifted the giant Roku statue behind him.

Great, first a firebender, then an airbender, now an earthbender.

When he was about to crush us, Pema let out a sharp whistle.

Suddenly, the man was sent flying by a sudden gust of wind. We turned to see that Kuki was responsible.

Joy, Marcus, and Dante leapt atop Kuki, but when Pema was about to leap on, a decent sized rock hit Kuki in the side, startling him, causing him to take off.

Cinder shot a powerful fire blast at the armored man, which he blocked with a rock wall. Using the distraction, Pema leapt on top of Cinder just behind me and we took off.

We were about a two hundred feet in the air when I decided to look at the man below us.

He had levitated a rock that must have weight at least forty tons and was aiming it at us.

"Cinder, dodge!" I yelled.

The rock didn't hit Cinder's body, but it smacked his left wing.

Before we knew it, we started plummeting.

Pema gripped tighter around my waist as we spiralled downwards, Cinder having trouble regaining his balance.

"C'mon buddy!" I yelled when we were about fifty feet from the ground.

Cinder finally managed to maintain his balance and we barely skipped the ground as he pulled up.

We flew away, trying to catch up with the others, and didn't look back.

We left the Fire Sages at the mercy of the Red Star.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. Thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	9. Preparation

**Hey guys, back again. Just a friendly reminder, for my multi-part, mid-season finale, _Siege on the Fire Nation_, I will take a three week break to correct and make the three parts, as well as prewrite even more chapters. Anyways, I hope you like this. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_In the Fire Nation..._**

It had been eight days since Cresent Island had been stormed.

We managed to find a dense forest, which we have been living in every since, mostly eating fish. We set up camp in a clearing, which isn't even really a camp because we have no sleeping bags or tents.

I was currently training with Marcus, trying to improve my waterbending.

"Alright," Marcus instructed me, "you're pretty good with versatility, but I think it's best we work magnitude first. Now, pull as much water upwards as you possibly can and make a tidal wave. Observe."

He lifted both arms upwards, pulling the water upwards until it reached about fifteen feet, his brow furrowing in strain. He then brought his arms down, causing it to crash down on the other side of the stream.

"Now you try." Marcus told me after a few panting breaths.

I closed my eyes and raised my arms, trying to pull the water upwards. I opened my eyes to see the water rising, I started to feel strained at about ten feet, but I decided to push myself.

I ended up adding a couple extra feet to the tidal wave before bringing it down.

I started panting for a moment, then turned towards Marcus.

"Did I do alright?" I asked nervously.

"Better." He told me, nodding. "Definitely an improvement."

Marcus has taught me so much about waterbending. I learned to use it more fluidly (no pun intended) in combat. I was even able to fair pretty well against Marcus in sparing matches.

Unfortunately, airbending was different story.

After the waterbending practice, I resumed trying to learn airbending from Pema.

It was not going very well.

I couldn't produce a single gust of air, so Pema suggested that we work on my "zen mode" as she called it, which would help me grasp the concepts of airbending.

Unfortunately, I was always distracted, mostly because of a strange sense of urgency which I have had since the attack on Cresent Island.

We both sat with crossed legs, fists touching, and eyes closed.

I finally told her the problem.

"Listen, Pema," I told her, causing her eyes to flash open, "I can never sit still while trying to meditate, I have been a nervous wreck since Cresent Island, I can't concentrate."

"You know what's the real problem, Kybo?" She asked, not moving from her sitting position.

"I suck?" I suggested.

She shook her head.

"You think you failed." She explained. "You want to be better, but that urgency is keeping you down."

She stood up and then crouched in front of me.

She put a tender hand on my shoulder.

"Your problem isn't a bad thing at all. It's the fact that you want to protect others, especially us." She continued to explain. "The problem, is that you care. Kybo, you have a kind heart, you need to embrace that, even though you are the Avatar, your still human."

Man, that speech made me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Pema was great at being supportive.

"Ahem." Said a voice behind us.

We turned to see Joy standing near a tree with a sly grin on her face.

"Hey, lovebirds, dinner's ready."

I scowled at Joy. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Pema's cheeks turned pink.

When we arrived at our base camp, we saw Marcus carrying five cooked fish on a large, flat stone, which acted as a plate.

We looked around, neither of us seeing our two animals.

"Where are Kuki and Cinder?" Pema asked Marcus.

"Kuki went out grazing and Cinder went out hunting." Marcus told us. "Kuki doesn't eat fish and I don't want Cinder eating our meals."

"Fair enough." Said Pema.

Pema, Marcus, Joy, and I sat down to have the fish, then I realized that Dante wasn't there.

"Is Dante scouting again?" I asked them.

Joy nodded.

Dante had been scouting tirelessly. He wasn't scouting on foot, but with his spiritual projection. He was using this skill to peak into the few Red Star bases that he knows of to gather intel.

After we wordlessly finished our meal, we stood up and Pema and I started to walk back to the area where we were training.

Then, Dante burst through the underbrush, sweat breaking out on his face, hyperventilating from running.

"What happened?" Pema asked with concern.

"The Red Star is going to assassinate the Fire Lord and blockade the Fire Nation capital in a matter of hours." Dante frantically told us. "It is being led by Terra."

"Wait, Terra?" I asked. "Isn't he one of the leaders of the Red Star? Didn't he try to attack us as we were trying to escape Cresent Island?"

Dante nodded.

I recalled the man who tried to attack us on Cresent Island who had the same suit as Chuck, except with green lights.

The main thing I remembered was how formidable of a bender he was.

"We have to stop the attack. We at least need to help." I told everyone, then turned towards Pema. "I guess airbending would have to wait."

Everyone nodded.

We quickly found Kuki and Cinder. The others piled on Kuki and I flew on Cinder.

As we flew, I had a feeling I didn't expect.

I was going in the belly of the beast.

And I was thrilled.

Thrilled that we were finally doing something to stop these tyrants.

* * *

**Sorry if the chapter was short, but it is just a buildup for the next chapters. Think of the next chapters as the mid-season finale. Anyways, I hope you liked it. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	10. Siege on the Fire Nation: Part 1

**Hey guys, I'm back again. Admittedly, I'm having trouble coming up with super enthusiastic things to say in the authors note other than to enjoy. Also, I will do POV changes in this chapter, I don't know how much more I will do it, but I hope you like this. So I hope you enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

_**In the sky in the Fire Nation...**_

We were flying at top speed across the Fire Nation, trying to reach the capital.

Although I wanted to face these enemies head on, I knew that it wouldn't be that easy.

Since I was riding on Cinder by myself, while the others were on Kuki, who was slower then Cinder. Because of that, I couldn't speak to any of them. So, to comfort myself, I just started talking to Cinder.

"I guess you are kind of helping me take down the Red Star for the same reason as me, aren't you." I pried. "My parents, and your mom and little brother were taken by the Red Star."

He grunted in response, which I assumed was a yes.

"It's cool to have someone like you around." I said. "It gets kind of boring living near a forest with two siblings pestering you."

I looked back towards Kuki, who was flying a few hundred yards behind us, where Joy and Marcus were.

"Sometimes, although they may bug you, you don't want them to leave," I continued telling Cinder, "and when you do, you don't."

That made a lot of sense, but none at all at the same time, but Cinder made a low rumbling noise that was almost like a purr, which I assumed meant that he understood.

Suddenly, a flash of blue flashed beside me, causing me to almost fall off of Cinder.

The blue light was Dante's projection.

"Dante, what the heck?" I demanded. "You scared me out of my skin."

"Sorry, Kybo." He sheepishly responded. "It was the only way to talk to you, since you were so far away from us."

"So, what's wrong?" I asked.

He pointed in front of me dark shape in the sky in the distance, which was close enough to make out.

It was an airship.

"Judging by the design, I think that it was sent by the United Republic." Dante informed me. "We need to get onboard."

I quickly nodded.

"I'll dock first, since I'm closer." I told him. "I'll tell them that I'm the Avatar and tell them about the attack, then you can dock."

His projection nodded, then disappeared.

When I got closer, a logo on the side of the ship confirmed that it was the United Republic.

And, boy, were they surprised when they saw a boy riding a dragon off the bow of their ship.

A voice blasted from the speakers on the side of the ship.

"_State your business_!" It demanded.

Well, something like that is irrelevant if they won't let me in to tell them.

I guided Cinder towards the front of the ship, where the bridge was, which was basically a half dome of window panes with all kinds of contraptions inside the dome, and look at the glass.

I spotted some condensation forming on it.

I used my finger to write a message in the condensation, making sure to write it backwards so that they could immediately understand what it was from the inside.

After I wrote "Avatar" in the glass and pointed to myself, all of their eyes widened and they immediately opened the docking bay, which had multiple planes inside.

After they closed the docking bay, man in a Republic City police uniform strode towards me.

The man was a full head taller than me, which is impressive since I am five foot, ten inches tall. He also had dark facial hair and shoulder length brown hair.

The first word I thought of when I saw him was "rough".

As I got off Cinder, he approached me.

To my surprise, he cracked a smile and held out his hand.

"I'm Captain Ishi, the Chief of Police for Republic City."

I recognized his name. He was an absolute legend. He led a team of police against orders on a mission to finish off the Triple Threat Triad. When he succeeded, he was promoted to Chief of Police.

I took his hand.

"I'm Kybo." I told him. "I have some friends with me, can you open the docking bay for them? We need to tell you something."

He nodded slowly, then looked at Cinder, then back to me.

"The dragon has to stay outside the ship." Ishi said without missing a beat.

Cinder let out a snort of smoke and a growl, then he looked over at me.

"Sorry, Cinder." I told him.

Cinder's head dropped a bit.

When the two of us walked through an iron door leading inside the ship, Ishi remotely opened the docking bay, letting Cinder out.

Just as Cinder flew out, Kuki (with the others on him) flew in.

After a quick introduction to everyone, Ishi brought us to the bridge to discuss business.

"What's up?" He asked.

"We heard of plans to storm the Fire Nation capital and kill the Fire Lord." Marcus told him.

"That's why we're here." Ishi told us. "We received a distress call from the Fire Nation, so we are going to help."

I nodded, but Dante's eyes narrowed.

"What's the Chief of Police doing helping stop a foreign invasion?" Dante pried. "Everyone I've seen on this ship is either crew, or United Republic soldiers."

"I was one of the president's top choices." Ishi responded. "There are actually a few other policemen on the ship."

Ishi then turned to the rest of us.

"Well, we got a couple spare barrack rooms, where plenty of beds are." He informed us. "There are plenty of beds there, you can stay there."

We all thanked him and we started walking through the hallway where he told us to go.

As soon as we entered the hallway and closed the door behind us, Dante stopped.

"You coming, Dante?" Pema asked him.

"You guys catch up, I need to talk to Kybo." He told her.

She slowly nodded and they kept going.

"What's up?" I asked him.

"Something's up." He responded. "Why would the chief of police be in an invasion army? Also, why are there spare rooms? Normally they would be completely filled up."

I sighed.

"Listen, Dante, you're just paranoid." I said. "Ishi's a hero _and _Chief of Police, he can be trusted."

"I'm just saying, be on your guard." Dante warned me.

"Okay, whatever." I said dismissively as I walked away, feeling Dante's eyes on my back.

When I got to the room, I counted ten bunk beds, and the others were lazing on three of the bottom bunks.

We each picked our bunks. I picked the one in between Joy and Pema, Dante chose to pick one across the room.

The sun had gone down since we arrived, so we all unanimously agreed to catch some z's before we arrived at the Fire Nation Capital.

We all slowly started to drift off to sleep, thinking about the day ahead.

At least I think.

* * *

**_Dante's POV_**

I stayed awake, pondering whether I should trust Chief Ishi.

After two hours of lying awake, I sighed to myself.

Maybe Kybo was right, maybe Ishi was on our side.

Suddenly, something hit me.

Something didn't add up with what Ishi was saying.

It must have been a slip up.

I quickly slid out of bed and snuck out of the room towards Ishi's quarters, silent as a cat owl.

I opened the door to his room, where he was alone, studying a large map of the Fire Nation Capital.

"Dante, is something the matter?" He asked calmly, not looking up from his map.

"How did you know it was me?" I asked curiously.

"Seismic sense." He replied. "It spans the entirety of the ship."

Then he looked up and stared at me.

"Tell my you are _really _here." He told me. "And don't lie, because I'll know. I sense every heartbeat on this ship."

My blood turned ice cold.

If that was true, then he knew almost everything we've been doing on this ship and can keep an eye on us this whole time.

But I willed my face to remain still.

Then I spoke up.

"How did you know to fly to the Fire Nation if the attack hadn't happened yet?" I inquired.

"Some of my men found intel about the attack." He told me.

"I thought you said it was a distress call?" I inquired further with a raised eyebrow.

"My men were working in the Fire Nation." He answered without missing a beat.

"The _Republic City_ Police?" I questioned further. "I don't need a seismic sense to tell me that you're lying."

Ishi stood up.

"You are a smart young man, Dante." He commented. "But it was a foolish choice to confront me alone."

Ishi clenched his hand, causing the door handle to crumble and fall off.

I unsheathed my swords and rushed towards him.

Just before I swung the swords, two blades extended from Ishi's wrists and he parried the blows.

We both backed up, ready to attack again.

He fired a cord towards me, which I swiftly dodged and cut in half.

I was about to advance, but my feet wouldn't move.

I looked down to see that my feet had been swallowed by the floor using metalbending.

Ishi rushed forward and disarmed me of my blades and put me in a choke hold.

As my air supply was cut off, I heard him whispering in my ear.

"You're lucky that you are still somewhat useful, or else I would kill you." He told me menacingly.

As I felt myself slip into unconsciousness, I willed my spirit to exit my body, which was hard because it usually required a calm setting.

Luckily, it worked. As soon as I lost consciousness, I saw myself staring at Ishi and myself.

Luckily, since I was behind him, Ishi didn't see me.

Before he had the chance to turn around, I flew through the wall next to me and kept going until I was outside the ship.

I was an astral projection who couldn't alter the physical world, so what can I do.

I hovered outside the ship for about fifteen minutes, pondering what to do next.

Then, I saw two large shapes in the air, flying lazily above the ship.

Of course, Cinder and Kuki! They were outside the ship, so Ishi couldn't detect them.

I quickly flew over towards them, earning their attention.

"Guys, I'm going to need you to listen to me very intently." I told them.

They carefully listened as I told them my plan.

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

We were woken up by a sudden blue flash in our room.

I looked up to see Dante, glowing blue and floating in the middle of the room.

I was about to ask him a bunch of questions when Pema beat me to the punch.

"Dante, what are you doing here?" Pema asked him. "And why are you here as an astral projection instead of in person?"

"I snuck out and confronted Ishi about something fishy." Dante explained. "When he knew that he'd been caught, he incapacitated me and I am currently unconscious."

That felt like a punch to the gut. I had waved off Dante and he ended up being right. And now, because of that, he was captured.

"Why would they do that?" Marcus asked.

"Because he's a member of the Red Star." Dante answered. "He's using this ship to get into the capital disguised as the United Republic, while the brunt of the attack is on the front."

Joy rubbed her hands together and grinned mischievously.

"Time to give Ishi's men a butt whooping like never before." She said enthusiastically.

Dante shook his head.

"You can't there are too many men." He warned. "Also, Ishi's seismic sense can sense your position across the ship, so you can't be suspicious in terms of your movements."

"You got a better plan?" Joy asked.

He nodded.

"He can sense if something is wrong if everything is going on as normal, but, if he is focused completely on something, I don't think he can sense us." Dante told us. "Once he's distracted, head to the hangar bay door, Cinder will be waiting."

This seemed like a good plan, but there was one hole in his plan.

"What about you?" I asked.

He sighed.

"My body is in a cell at the front of the ship at this point, which is the opposite direction of the hangar door." He told us. "It won't take long for Ishi to realize that we were responsible for the distraction and start searching for us, so you need to do this quick. You need to leave me behind."

"No." Pema said flatly. "No way."

Dante looked sadly at his cousin.

"Pema," He told her gravely. "This isn't just about saving you guys, it's about stopping this surprise attack. Don't waste this on me."

"I'm not leaving you." She said flatly once again.

"Listen, Pema." He told her. "You have to get moving now, because the distraction is going to start..."

He paused for moment.

"...Now."

The sound of a crash and yells echoed down the hallway from the front of the ship.

"What happened?" Marcus asked frantically.

"That would be Kuki crashing straight into the glass dome covering the bridge." Dante told us.

"Won't they be sucked out?" Pema asked.

"No, I'm sure they have precautions against this." He responded coolly. "Now go!"

In that moment, he disappeared.

Pema stood up.

"Go the the hangar of you want." She told us. "But I'm freeing Dante."

I stood up as well.

"I'm going too."

"So are we." Marcus said as he and Joy stood up.

"No." I told them. "If we fail, someone still needs to earn the Fire Lord."

Marcus looked like he was about to argue, but decided against it.

"Go!" I yelled.

We all dashed out of the door, Marcus and Joy went left, and Pema and I went right.

We ran as quickly as possible, Pema rushing ahead of me, using airbending to increase her speed.

We were now getting closer to the prison area, but I was getting kind of tired from running, in contrast to Pema who wasn't breaking a sweat.

As soon as I saw Pema round a corner up ahead, I heard commotion.

I turned around the corner and saw that Pema was holding off three guards, whom I saw each controlled a different element.

Two of the men (one was a waterbender and the other one was a firebender) spotted me and decided to focus his attacks on me, leaving Pema to deal with an earthbender three times her size.

They fired some water from a nearby basin (which was specifically made for the waterbending guards) and a blast of fire towards me, so I split the fire blast down the middle and sent the water back at them.

I directed the water at the firebender's feet, freezing them. I then jumped in the air and kicked out with both feet, denting a large fireball towards him.

He was hit in the chest and flew down the hallway, crashing into the wall behind him and crumpling to the ground.

I peaked over at Pema who was swiftly dodging shards of metal and physical blows from the massive earthbender.

She paused to send an air gust towards the waterbender, throwing him towards me.

I ignited my fist and gave him a nice, hard, flaming punch to the head, knocking him unconscious.

Pema lept over the last man's head and hit him with and air blast, sending someone in my direction yet again.

I gathered a generous amount of water from the basins lined down the hall and ducked. Just as the man flew over my head, I thrust the water at his torso, freezing him to the ceiling.

There's no way that Ishi doesn't know we're here now.

We rounded another corner to find a door, which we opened to find three cells.

And Dante was inside of it, eyes open, laying on his back.

The single guard that was there was about rush towards us, but with a lazy flick of her wrist, Pema thrust him against the bars of Dante's cage.

Dante reacted immediately, grabbing the guard through the bars of the cage and taking the keys.

He unlocked the cage and knocked the guard out with one punch, then dragged his unconscious body outside of the room.

Then he glared at us.

"I told you to run." Dante growled.

"Well, I'm more stubborn than you are." Said Pema with a smirk. "Also, I don't leave family behind."

A warm smile slowly appeared on Dante's face, which I didn't know was possible.

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Dante." I told him apologetically. "I should have trusted you gut."

Dante shook his head.

"It's fine." He responded.

"Sorry to break up the reunion." Said a familiar voice coming from the entrance.

We turned to see Ishi standing at the doorway.

When he walked into the room, the door tore itself off its hinges and wrapped around Ishi, creating a suit of armor that covered his entire body besides his face. He then held his hand out, causing a bar to fly off of the nearest cage into his hand. Then, using metalbending, he filed the end of the bar to a point, creating a makeshift spear.

"Hold him off." Dante calmly told us. "I'm going to contact Marcus and Joy."

He sat on the floor, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes.

Ishi rushed forward, but I launched a powerful fire bloom and Pema shot a powerful gust.

The combined attack pushed him back, his armor protecting him, but he began to push back.

As he was pushing back, he made a pulling motion with his hand, causing another bar from a cell to fly off; this time, it wrapped around my wrist and threw me against the wall, leaving Pema to fight him alone.

Now being able to power through the elemental blast with me out of the way, he lunged towards Pema, trying to slash her with his metal spear.

I immediately went to work, trying to melt my restraints.

Dante opened his eyes. "Joy is planning on blasting a hole in the side of the ship where we are, they are ready to catch us.

Then, I heard crashed outside the ship. Although Joy's combustion blasts were powerful, they couldn't tear through the hull of the ship.

Using the distraction, Ishi launched a shard of metal at Dante's shoulder, causing him to cry out.

I looked up to see Pema trying very hard to dodge all of the spear strikes.

He thrust the spear at her, which she sidestepped.

But he knew that she would do that.

He slashed the spear to the side.

Straight towards Pema's face.

I watched it horror as the spear slashed her cheek, cutting deep; maybe to the bone.

She let out a bloodcurdling scream as dark red blood poured down the side of her face.

Ishi kicked Pema's feet out from under her and raised the spear above his head.

I felt power surge through my veins. I had only felt this power once before.

On Cresent Island when I wailed on Chuck.

I was in the Avatar State.

Pema and Dante scrambled out of the way because they knew what was coming.

Ishi also seemed to know because he started to brace for the attack. He anchored himself to the floor and pulled up the floor to create a metal wall.

But that wasn't enough.

I created a ball of fire in my hands, concentrating as much fire as possible into it.

Then I fired it.

The wall held up against the blast, but the blast tore a hole through the side of the ship where the wall was, sucking lose objects and throwing outside the ship.

As well as the three of us.

As we flew out of the hole and I saw Kuki and Cinder below, I felt myself slip out of the Avatar State, but something caught me around my waist, tethering me to the ship.

I realized that a metal wire was around my waist.

I turned to see Ishi trying to pull me back to the ship by the tether.

Ishi knew that if he let go, I would get away.

I wouldn't let that happen.

I grabbed the cord with both hands and generated as much electricity as possible. Then it flew up the cord straight towards Ishi. The shock caused him to let out a primal yell of pure pain, which was probably because of all of the which I heard even with the wind in my ear.

I heated up the wire until it melted off, causing me to fall.

I planned on landing on Cinder, who was about twenty feet below me.

Once I got close, I shot fire out of my feet in order to slow my landing.

When I collapsed on Cinder's back, I saw that Pema and Dante landed on Kuki's back, Marcus tending to their wounds with healing.

We all started flying away at top speed towards the Fire Nation Capital, which was on the horizon, to warn the Fire Lord.

* * *

**This was, by far, the longest chapter I've ever done in any of my stories. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	11. Siege on the Fire Nation: Part 2

**Hey guys, back for part 2. Also, I will be switching to POVs from now on, not very much, but I will. I hope you like this. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Over the Great Gates of Zuko..._**

As we were flying, over the Great Gates of Zuko, we saw a raging battle on the shores of the royal palace.

(Author's note, Great Gates of Zuko are just the renamed Great Gates of Azulon)

Both sides seemed pretty even in terms of technology, since they both had Tundra Tanks and catapults, but the Red Star seemed to have the advantage in numbers.

The reason being was that all other Fire Nation reinforcements were blocked by a Red Star blockade. This caused a raging naval battle as well, but the Fire Nation ships were having trouble against the Red Star's planes.

But the most pressing matter was, how were we going to get in without being shot down by the Fire Nation?

Anyways, since the scuffle on the airship, Dante and Pema's injuries were mostly taken care of. Marcus had carefully removed the metal shard from Dante's shoulder, Joy cauterized the wound, then Marcus healed the burns. Marcus decided that it was best that they don't cauterize the deep cut on Pema's cheek, so they left it as it was.

We planned to try to dodge or counter any flaming projectiles and land behind their lines and explain ourselves.

Then the first volley came.

Cinder was easily able to weave between the fireballs, but Kuki had a harder time trying to dodge them due to his larger size, so Joy had to blow up most of projectiles.

We landed behind their catapults and I got off of Cinder and put my hands up.

Three guards with spears got in a defensive position, but eased up when they realized that I was just a kid.

"What are you doing here kid?" The closest guard demanded.

"I'm the Avatar." I told them. "Take us to the Fire Lord."

The guard raised an eyebrow. "The Avatar? What makes you think we would believe you?"

I spotted a jug of water next to a nearby catapult. I caused the water to rise out of it and pulled it towards me. Meanwhile, I set my other hand on fire.

Their eyes widened.

The closest guard just slowly nodded and barked some orders to the other two guards and, before we knew it, we were heading inside of the palace with the two guards at our sides.

We decided to leave Kuki and Cinder outside for obviously reasons.

We were escorted into a large room where some kind of war meeting was going on.

In the room were five generals surrounding a table with a map of the Fire Nation capital on it.

At the head of the table was Fire Lord Kasai.

She was a beautiful woman in her mid twenties (she was coronated early because of her parent's untimely deaths) with chin-length black hair and a stern look on her face.

She looked like a true leader.

She looked up from the table and saw us.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Kasai snapped.

"This is the Avatar and his friends, your highness." The guard on the right said politely.

Her expression softened, but didn't waver.

"What brings you here, Avatar?" She asked both politely and sternly at the same time.

"There is a Red Star ship coming disguised as a United Republic ship." I explained. "Chief Ishi is leading the charge."

She furrowed her brow.

"He is a part of the Red Star?" She inquired.

I nodded.

"After my friend, Dante, figured out that he had a separate agenda, Ishi imprisioned him." I explained further, pointing to Dante when I mentioned him.

"We flew straight here after escaping with our lives."

A tall, burly general stood up.

"Your highness." He told Kasai. "You seriously can't be considering believing these kids? The boy might not even be the Avatar."

And then, everything went black.

A few moments later, I was back at the war council, where everyone had a shocked look on their face, even Fire Lord Kasai.

"What happened?" I asked curiously.

Kasai spoke first.

"Avatar Kiana spoke to us." She told me.

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused.

"Sometimes, a past Avatar can take physical form in the real world through the current Avatar." Kasai informed me. "You morphed into Avatar Kiana before our eyes and she told me that I can trust you."

(Author's note: it's like Aang did in the episode _Avatar Day)_

I looked back at my friends, who looked both frightened and in awe.

The Fire Lord finally regained her composure and folded her hands in front of her.

"Avatar Kiana saved my life when I was young." Kasai said. "I trust what Avatar Kiana has told us."

"Now how do we win this battle?" I asked her. "And how can we help?"

Kasai thought to herself for a few moments, then spoke up.

"All of our attempts to radio the other nations are redirected to the Red Star." She explained. "We use special codes to verify if the line is safe. They didn't know the code, so I knew that it was the Red Star. I'm guessing that the signals are being redirected to the false United Republic ship you were talking about. Now that I know what it is, I want a small team to infiltrate the ship and take out the jamming signal. I want some of you to be on the mission."

All five of us stepped up.

Kasai pointed towards me.

"Not you, Avatar." She told me.

"What, why?" I asked frantically.

"I have another task for you." Kasai responded. "It may seem slightly lowly."

I nodded slowly.

"What is it?"

She leaned forward with a grave look.

"I need you to defend my younger sister, Moyasu, she's just a child." Kasai told me. "Her safety is more important to me than the outcome of this battle."

I was about to object, but she spoke up again.

"Can you take out an entire legion?" Kasai asked with a raised eyebrow.

I shook my head.

"Do you know all of the elements?" She asked with another raised eyebrow.

I shook my head again.

"Then I don't have very much use for you on the battlefield." Kasai responded. "My younger sister can be used as a bargaining chip. All you have to do is protect her while the both of you are on a boat speeding away to safer Fire Nation territory."

Kasai's stern expression softened as she spoke to me again.

"Please, Avatar. She's all I have left." She told me in a pleading manner.

I thought about this for a moment.

"Okay." I finally said.

A warm smile appeared on her face.

"Thank you." Kasai said. "There will be a boat with my sister on it a few clicks from this battle. The only four people on the boat will be you, Moyasu, another body guard named Jordan who's an expert in Agni Kai and will also escort you to the boat, and the captain."

I slowly nodded in understanding.

"Good." Kasai responded. "Thank you, Avatar. Jordan will now take you to the boat."

A tall, imposing guard in chain mail, who I assumed was Jordan, appeared behind me from the entrance.

Jordan stopped in front of me and did something I didn't expect.

He bowed.

After Jordan was done bowing, he flashed me a smile and held out his hand.

"It's an honor to meet you, Avatar." He warmly told me as he shook my hand.

I was taken aback by this, but decided to act professional in front of the Fire Lord and not look shocked.

"Pleasure to meet you too." I responded.

Kasai stood up.

"Anyways, I'm also going to be on the team to infiltrate the airship." Kasai told the generals.

The same burly general who doubted me before stood up immediately.

"Absolutely not!" He shouted. "We will not have you go in the belly of the beast."

"They need extra firepower." Kasai told him. "I'm the strongest firebender we can provide. I am going on this mission, and no one can stop me."

The general looked like he was about to object, but he decided against it at the last second.

Kasai then made a guesture to Jordan for him to leave.

Jordan walked out of the war council room and motioned for me to follow him.

After about a fifteen minutes of sneaking between the expensive residences outside of the palace (which were deserted), we finally made it to the beach a few hundred yards away from the battle, where a decent sized yacht was waiting.

And here I thought that the boat was going to be small and inconspicuous.

Waiting there, on top of a yacht, was a stocky man that I guessed was the captain, and a little, dark-haired girl that was about six or seven years old, whom I guessed was princess Moyasu.

Once we boarded the yacht, Jordan shook hands with the captain and bowed to the princess. The captain then laid eyes on me, then turned towards Jordan.

"Who's this?" The captain asked Jordan, curiously. "I thought it would be just you."

"Change of plans." Jordan responded, then guestured towards me.

"This is the Avatar." He told the captain, along with a "don't ask" look.

The captain's eyes widened, then he held out his hand, which I took.

"Pleased to meet you, Avatar. My name is Jack." The captain told me enthusiastically. "And you are?"

I realized that no one has asked me my name since I arrived, then I told him.

"Kybo." I responded.

Moyasu waved at me enthusiastically with a smile on her face.

"Hi, Avatar!" She exclaimed.

Seriously, the sight of that melted my heart.

I smiled and waved back.

Jordan turned to me and informed me about what we were planning on doing. They were escaping on a yacht to make it seem like we were just a group of rich people fleeing from the nearby battle, which is why there aren't very many people. Jack would be the only one on the deck, meanwhile, Jordan and I would be hidden inside the yacht with Moyasu.

Before we went below deck, I peaked over at the ensuing battle and saw that the airship had arrived. The forces were shooting at the ship and vise versa.

After seeing this, we ducked below the deck with Moyasu and hunkered down until the boat started up and sped off.

* * *

**_Pema's POV_**

The team consisted of Dante, Marcus, Joy, Kasai, a firebender who was both a pilot and a mechanic, and I.

The plan was to hijack a Red Star plane, which the pilot would fly, and land in the docking bay of the ship. From there, we would make our way to the bridge and capture Ishi. Ishi would then tell us where Terra was, then we would find Terra and take him out.

We quickly found a grounded Red Star strike plane, which, luckily, had enough room for all of us, knocked out the pilot, and took off.

When we got close, we heard a voice buzz on the plane's radio.

"What's the password?" Demanded the voice.

Great, it's one of these cliche situations. Kinda like that one old, corny mover made by Varrick with the waterbender.

The pilot spoke up.

"We don't have time for this!" He demanded. "Ishi called us here just now!"

The radio was silent for a moment, then it buzzed again.

"Ishi left about fifteen minutes ago." The voice calmly said.

My blood ran cold as the voice said that.

There was a whirring sound as one of the harpoon turrets turned in our direction.

Kasai, who was behind the captain, was the first to react.

She launched a powerful fireball at the turret before it had a chance to fire. The blast blew it straight off of the ship.

Kasai turned towards Joy, who was right behind her.

"Blast a hole through the docking bay door!" Kasai shouted over the wind.

Joy nodded and took aim.

Then she fired.

The blast caused a large dent in the door, but it didn't break through.

Meanwhile, three more turrets swiveled in our direction.

I nudged Joy, who was in front of me.

"Uh, Joy, you might want to hurry up." I slowly told Joy.

"Working on it." Joy grumbled.

Kasai punched out with both fists, sending two fireballs at two of the turrets.

The two turrets were destroyed, but the last one was still intact.

Joy fired a second shot at the same area, making the dent bigger.

Then the turret fired.

The pilot reacted quickly, but not fast enough.

The harpoon left a deep gash in the side of the plane. I peaked over the side to see a dark liquid pouring out of the side.

It was oil.

I nudged Joy again.

"Hurry up, the plane's leaking!" I yelled.

"Yelling doesn't help!" Joy yelled back.

The turret took aim once more.

Then Joy fired a third blast, which, finally, blasted a hole in the docking bay.

The pilot did not waste the opportunity, he hit the gas and we flew forward at top speed towards the hole.

The closer we got, the more I realized that the hole wasn't big enough.

I braced for impact as we neared the hole.

As we flew through the hole, the wings broke off and the rest of the plane slid through the docking bay, sending sparks in all directions and destroying multiple other planes docked inside.

After the plane finally shuddered to a stop, we quickly got off of the plane and ran towards the door leading to the inside of the ship after Kasai told the pilot to stay where he was.

When we opened the door, we were met by a guard, who looked extremely surprised.

Without missing a beat, Kasai created a fire dagger in one hand and pinned the guard to the wall with the other.

She held the flaming dagger to his face and had begun to question him.

"Where did Ishi go?" Kasai calmly demanded.

The guard, who seemed terrified of Kasai, quickly answered.

"H-he just said he had unfinished business to deal with." The guard whimpered.

"What do you mean 'unfinished business'?" Kasai pried further.

The guard stayed silent for a moment, then finally spoke up.

"Th-The Avatar."

My eyes widened.

Kybo.

Kasai's eyes widened as well.

"Moyasu." She muttered under her breath.

Kasai looked back at the guard and delivered a well-placed punch to the guard's head, knocking him out.

After Kasai knocked him out, she turned towards the four of us.

"You guys take back the bridge." She told us. "I'll have John pilot one of the undamaged planes so I can intercept Ishi before he gets to the Avatar and my sister."

"No." I blurted.

Kasai glared at me.

"What?" She sternly asked.

I looked up again.

"You might be our only chance at taking back the bridge." I explained. "Let me go. Kybo can probably hold his own against Ishi until I arrive."

Kasai looked like she was about to object, but decided to stop and consider what Pema was suggesting.

"I will always put being a sister above being a Fire Lord..." Kasai said.

I was about to object again, but Kasai finished her thought a moment later.

"...but I trust you to help protect my sister."

I perked up when she said that.

Kasai called across the docking bay to the pilot, whom I now knew was named John, and gave him a few orders.

Then, within a few moments, I was strapped into another plane with John in the pilot's seat.

I looked back to see Dante flip the switch to open the hangar bay door. Right when he did that, the hangar bay door slowly yawned open, causing wind to surge past my ears (well, more than there already was due to the hole in the wall).

The plane started to roll towards the opening as the propeller started to spin.

Before I knew it, we were soaring through the sky towards the far off, small shape of the yacht at least two or three miles away.

But that wasn't the only shape I saw.

I saw a small, dark shape in the sky that was slightly closer to us.

It was plane.

And it had almost reached the yacht.

Sure, partially why I wanted to try to stop Ishi was for tactical reasons, but that wasn't the main reason.

The real reason was that I cared about Kybo.

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

Jordan, Moyasu, and I were hunkered down below deck when we suddenly heard loud slam coming from the top deck, like metal against metal.

Something must have landed on the deck.

Or someone.

Jordan and I stood up.

"Stay here." He told me, keeping his eyes on the roof. "I'll take a look, stay here with Moyasu."

As Jordan crept up the stairs leading to the deck, I got in defensive position, ready for a fight. Meanwhile, Moyasu hid behind me.

I heard Jordan close the metal door behind him as he got to the top of the stairs and waited a few moments.

I sighed and turned towards Moyasu.

"I think it's safe." I assured her with a smile.

I had to open my big ol' mouth.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of Jordan crying out on the deck.

Then, there was silence.

Moyasu and I stayed absolutely still.

Suddenly, the screeching noise of metal tearing causing Moyasu to scream. Then, the metal door that was at the top of the staircase clattered to the bottom.

I heard footsteps walking down the stairs, the sound of metal against metal. Then I saw a pair of legs, then a torso with a Republic City Police uniform, then, finally, a face.

It was Ishi.

He had burns on his face from when I electrocuted him before, and I was betting that his armor was covering even more burns.

I immediately shielded Moyasu and stared at Ishi.

"Just take me instead, Ishi." I pleaded.

Ishi let out a chuckle.

"You are the one I came for." Ishi said, seemingly amused. "But don't worry, I'll take both of you."

I was starting to get desperate.

"I'll make whatever deal your leader wants, just please don't take her." I continued to plead.

"Leader?" Ishi questioned.

Huh?

"Terra." I clarified.

Why would this guy not remember his leader.

He suddenly laughed.

"I forgot I chose that stupid code name." Ishi mused.

He stared at me for a moment, then spoke.

"Foolish boy, I thought you would have figure this out already." Ishi mocked.

I realized with a start why I didn't see Terra in the battle.

Ishi confirmed my suspicions.

"I am Terra." Ishi told me flatly. "And I am tired of Pyro being the top dog, always being in his shadow because he killed the Avatar. It's time I do the same thing he did."

A blade sprouted from each of his gauntlets as his amused expression turned serious.

"You're mine, Avatar!"

* * *

**I hope that you liked this chapter of The Legend of Kybo. This mid-season finale will be in three parts, so the next one will be the final part. Anyways, thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	12. Siege on the Fire Nation: Part 3

**Hey guys, this will be the final part of Seige on the Fire Nation. I hope you like this. Also, I will take another three week break to make more chapters. Sorry. Anyways, enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_A few miles off the coast of the Fire Nation..._**

Thoughts raced through my head after Ishi got ready to attack.

How could Ishi possibly know where we were?

Just as I thought this, Ishi lunged.

I shoved Moyasu into a corner of the room and jumped back.

This wasn't good. The yacht was mostly made of metal, so Ishi had the advantage. To make matters worse, I was under the deck, so I didn't have access to water.

I had to get to the top deck.

I fired a few shots of fire at Ishi, who blocked it by pulling some of the metal up from the floor.

But those blasts were just used as a distraction.

I turned towards Moyasu.

"Moyasu, run!" I yelled.

She didn't need to be told twice.

Moyasu ran faster than any seven year-old that I had seen. When Ishi turned to stop her, I hit him in the side with a blast of fire. Moyasu flew up the stairs towards the top deck.

I began to conjure lightning as Ishi turned back towards me. I thought that this was a good play at first because Ishi couldn't block the attack with metal, but Ishi knew this and tripped me up with his cord.

Then, I made a risk gamble.

Instead of aiming directly at Ishi, I aimed at the floor he was standing on as I quickly stood up and prayed that the electricity wouldn't go through my rubber soles.

Luckily, the electricity coursed through Ishi's body, causing him to yell, meanwhile, I was left unscathed.

I didn't waste a second, I dashed towards the stairs and got to the top deck.

When I got to the top deck, standing on the bow of the ship, I saw a sight that turned my blood to ice.

Jordan.

He was in the ocean, face down, the water around him turning red from blood.

He was dead.

I frantically looked around for Moyasu, then I heard a voice from the side.

"Surrender, Avatar." I heard the voice say.

I turned to see Jack, who was holding Moyasu with one arm, whose face was wet with tears, and holding a knife to her throat with the other.

I realized the truth.

This was how Ishi knew where we were.

Jack was part of the Red Star.

I heard Ishi groaning down the stairs as he was slowly getting up.

I turned towards Jack.

"Jack, listen. I promise t-."

In the middle of my sentence, I quickly slammed Jack in the side with a torrent of water, knocking him off of the yacht.

Moyasu ran towards me, face wet with tears, tiny beads of blood on her throat from the knife.

I bent down and put my hands on her shoulders.

"Listen to me, Moyasu." I told her firmly. "Get to the other side of the yacht, now!"

She quickly nodded and dashed off towards the rear of the yacht.

I turned towards the staircase to see Ishi, who looked angrier than ever.

I quickly fired a blast of flames at him, but he pulled a sheet of metal from the floor and used it as a shield, then he launched it at me like a disc.

It flew faster than I expected and hit me in the shins, causing me to be knocked off my feet. In the moment that I was off the ground, I got hit in the side with another piece of metal, causing me to crash into the railing.

I let out a groan as I struggled to stand up, the bruises on my body hurting tremendously.

Ishi didn't stop.

He fired his cord at me, wrapping around my waist, then pulled me into a punch, which sent me sprawling.

I turned on my back to see Ishi looming over me, a blade extending from his gauntlet.

I quickly scrambled out of the way just as Ishi brought the blade down.

I pulled up some of the water from the ocean and created dozens of icicles.

Just as I fired them, part of the floor swung upwards like a trapdoor, blocking the icicles.

Ishi kicked the wall of metal straight at me, which I deflected with a water whip.

When I knocked it aside, I sawIshi changing forwards. A piece of the railing flew towards Ishi's hand, acting as a staff.

Quicker than I expected, he hit me in the stomach with the staff, then swung the staff into my face, making me landed straight on my back.

I doubled over in pain, my vision suddenly blurring from the blow to the head. Ishi started speak, but I didn't hear him, because of the ringing in my ears.

Ishi was too strong.

As my vision started to clear and my hearing started to sharpen, I realized that Ishi had stopped talking.

I looked up to see that Ishi had sharpened the end of the staff to point, like he did on the ship, and raised it above his head.

Normally in this situation, I would panic, but in this situation, I stayed calm.

At that moment, I remembered what Pema taught me about airbending.

I needed to flow with the element and get rid of all distractions.

Then, I made a shoving motion with my hand.

To my surprise, a blast of wind shot out of my hand, hitting Ishi at full force.

Ishi slid across the floor and through the open doorway leading towards the staircase. I could hear the clattering of Ishi's armor as he tumbled down the stairs.

After the clattering stopped, I looked down at my hands.

I couldn't help but feel satisfaction.

I could airbend.

I suddenly heard the steady, droning noise of a plane.

I turned to see a plane flying straight towards us.

A Red Star plane.

I was about to conjure lightning to shoot it down, when something caught my eye.

A quick flash of blonde hair.

Pema.

I heard angry growling coming from the doorway leading below deck.

I looked at the doorway to see a battered Ishi.

And he was very, very angry.

"You may airbend now, Avatar." Ishi growled. "But airbending won't stop you from sinking to the bottom of the ocean."

Ishi made a squeezing motion with his hand.

I looked down to see my feet being enveloped in metal. I tried to move my feet, but they were stuck to the floor.

Then, Ishi made a tearing motion with his arms.

This can't be good.

I spotted a crack in the floor in between me and Ishi, which was slowly getting larger.

I suddenly saw his plan.

Ishi had just anchored me to the ship by my feet and now he was sinking the ship with me still on it.

The steady drone of the plane was now much louder, but the crack was still getting bigger.

I started to heat up my feet to melt off the metal, but it wasn't working.

The crack was now almost at the edges of the ship.

Then, a familiar, blonde girl dropped down from above, cushioning her landing with a blanket of air.

Pema.

Like a ballerina, Pema flipped over Ishi's head and landed behind him.

This distraction caused Ishi to stop splitting the ship, the crack now just a few inches away from the edges of the ship.

Then, Pema hit him in the chest with a blast of wind, sending him in my direction.

I knocked Ishi aside with another blast of air, causing him to slam into the railing

As Ishi slumped against the railing, Pema and I moved our arms in a circular motion, gathering as much air as we could.

Then, just as Ishi lifted his head up, we fired our combined air blast.

The gust hit him, sending him flying at least seventy feet away from the ship, Ishi yelling as he flew through the air.

I couldn't keep a grin from forming on my face as Ishi flew through the air.

I turned towards Pema.

"Thanks." I told her with a smile.

Pema smiled warmly back.

Moyasu and I were safe because of her.

"Can the pilot bring the plane down to pick us up?" I asked Pema. "I want to make sure Moyasu safely gets back to the Fire Nation."

Pema was about to respond when a screeching noise interrupted her.

It was the sound of metal tearing.

I looked to see that the fissure in the floor was slowly creeping towards the edges of the ship.

Ishi was no longer metalbending the ship, but the weight of the ship was widening the crack.

My blood turned cold as the cracks reached the edge of the ship and the entire bow of the ship tore off of the mast.

With me still anchored to it.

Pema jumped forward and grabbed my hand just as the broken off bow went below the surface.

The chunk of the ship started to sink below the surface, dragging me under by my feet.

Pema was still holding on to my hand, not letting go, being dragged under with me.

I shook my head at her, non-verbally telling her to let go, but she also shook her head.

I tried to melt the metal again, but it was even more difficult because I was under water.

As the light coming from the surface slowly got dimmer and I felt it get harder to hold my breath, I felt myself lose hope.

I was going to die down here, and so would Pema.

In the dim light, I saw the same look in Pema's eyes. It was a cross between dispair, fear, and suffocation.

The main difference was that it seemed like she was running out of breath faster.

She must have not taken a full breath.

I still kept trying to melt the metal.

Tears started to flow from my eyes into the water as Pema's eyes rolled behind her head, her hand went limp, and bubbles of air rose out of her mouth.

My head started to get fuzzy, my lungs felt like they were on fire, and I felt dispair in it's purest form wash over me.

Then, I heard a familiar voice. A voice I only heard once before

"You are not going to die, Kybo." The woman's voice echoed in my head. "Not today."

The voice belonged to Avatar Kiana.

Then, I felt a familiar power surge through my veins.

I was in the Avatar State

I made another attempt to melt my restraints, this time, pouring all of the energy I could muster.

I not only melted the restraints, but blew up the chunk of the ship with the amount of fire I was producing.

I quickly grabbed Pema and shot up towards the surface.

After we broke the surface, Pema immediately started to cough up water and take greedy gulps of air.

When Pema looked up at me, her eyes widened with shock.

I stopped flying upwards and spotted the plane flying a few hundred feet in the air.

I immediately took off towards the plane, Pema in my arms, and dropped her in the seat behind the pilot.

The pilot also looked genuinely shocked, but I didn't stick around for long.

I flew back down towards the ocean, scanning the surface for Moyasu.

I finally spotted her, as well as Jack and Ishi floating a few dozen feet away.

I quickly swooped down and plucked Moyasu from the water and flew back up to the plane.

Once I got to the plane, I dropped Moyasu on Pema's lap.

I looked down at Ishi, who was floating helplessly in the water down below.

I desperately wanting to finish him off.

Ishi killed Jordan and wanted to kill me and take Moyasu.

"No," said Kiana's voice in my head. "You have somewhere else to be."

I turned and looked into the distance at the Great Gates of Zuko, where a battle was being waged.

She was right, I do have somewhere else to be.

I turned and started rocketing towards the distant battle.

* * *

_**Marcus' POV**_

After defeating a few guards, we finally managed to get to the bridge.

When we got there, we saw that the massive window that was there before was completely shattered, due to Kuki ramming into it.

As well as two dozen men staring at us.

There was a moment of silence.

Then, one man, who seemed to be the captain, yelled out, "Kill the intruders!"

Then all hell broke loose.

Fire, metal, and water were flying everywhere.

I saw Dante weaving through the chaos, chiblocking any man that approaches him.

I saw Kasai dueling the captain and a couple other men, the captain, who was a firebender, giving her the most difficulty.

I saw Joy, staying a good distance away from the fight, resorting to regular firebending since she didn't want to blow up the ship.

Meanwhile, I was currently rag dolling a couple crew members using a couple water whips.

Before we knew it all of the men were unconscious, except for the captain, who we kept conscious.

The captain looked like he was about to wet his pants.

"Turn off the jamming signal and put us on the line with the President of the United Republic!" Kasai ordered the captain.

He quickly nodded and scurried over towards the radio, which was close to the captain's helm.

We all stood around the captain, waiting for him to do something.

Then, a flash of blue caught my eye on the captain's hand.

When I looked down, my blood went cold.

It was the crackle of electricity at his fingertips.

"No!" I yelled as I reached for his hand.

It was like slow motion.

I saw the captain hold up two fingers and aim them at the radio.

Then he fired it.

All of us jumped back as electricity flew through the radio and blue light filled the room.

As quickly as it started, it ended.

We stared at the radio, which was charred and had smoke rising from it.

The look on the captain's face slowly changed from scared, to smug.

He had fried the radio.

Kasai furiously grabbed the captain with one hand and lit her other hand on fire.

"What did you do?!" She yelled at him.

The captain didn't flinch.

"You're too late, your highness." He told us. "This will be the first step towards our goal."

"What goal?!" Kasai demanded.

"To make the world one nation." The captain answered. "To get rid of all boundaries."

The captain began to chuckle, but was interrupted when he was knocked unconscious by a punch from Kasai.

"What will we do now?" I asked.

Kasai thought for a moment.

"There is on thing that I think we can do." She told us. "I haven't used it yet, it is only for large scale attacks."

"What is it?" Joy asked.

Kasai reaches into her pocket and pulled out a round object.

A lotus tile.

"A lotus tile?" I asked.

"This may look like a regular lotus tile, but it is actually a communication device that lets me tap out Morse code." She explained. "I can contact the White Lotus with this."

"Why didn't you do this before?!" Joy asked, bewildered.

"Because I thought Republic City was coming to our aid." Kasai responded. "But it will take the White Lotus a while to come to our aid."

"The Red Star has been infiltrating the ranks of the White Lotus." Dante told her. "How can we trust them."

"We trust no one." Kasai responded. "The only member that I know we can trust is Master Kaze, the Grand Lotus. For now, we need a miracle."

Suddenly, a bright object, almost like a comet, flew past the front of the ship.

When I looked closer, I realized it wasn't a comet, it was person.

"What was that?" Joy asked. "Was that a projectile?"

I continued to stare for a few more moments.

"No." I answered. "It's Kybo."

I turned towards Kasai.

"You asked for a miracle, right?"

Kybo's POV

Although I could see everything I was doing, I felt like I wasn't in control, but at the same time I was.

It was kinda like sleepwalking, where all of my actions are done self-consciously.

Only I am "sleepwalking" with enough power to level an army.

I flew over the battlefield, now a giant fireball, and surveyed the battle.

I started to fly around, destroying Red Star tanks with well placed fireballs. Many Red Star soldiers were running for cover.

After destroying about a dozen Red Star tanks, I flew down towards the ground like a meteor.

When I hit the ground, a wave of fire was sent in all directions.

The fire somehow moved around the Fire Nation forces and hit the Red Star forces instead, knocking the foot soldiers down and toppling the tanks.

Then, I started heard the steady drone of planes coming from behind me.

I turned around to see a half-dozen Red Star plans flying towards me fast.

I sent a massive fireball out of each limb and my mouth and guided them towards the planes, aiming for the wings.

All of them found their mark, causing five of the planes to plummet, the pilots parachuting out, but one emerged unscathed.

Then, something crashed into the last plane.

Cinder.

Cinder proceeded to rip off the left wing with his teeth, quickly nod in my direction, then fly back down towards the battle, where I also saw Kuki toppling Red Star tanks.

Then I flew towards the the naval battle.

I destroying watchtowers, leveling catapults, and scattered men. All projectiles that they fired were simply redirected or dodged.

I looked down at the Fire Nation ships to see them breaking through the Red Star blockade.

To make things better, I spotted more ships on the horizon. On the ships, there was only one thing that stood out.

The White Lotus symbol.

The White Lotus was coming.

Marcus' POV

"Wow, they came quicker than expected." Kasai remarked as she saw the White Lotus forces outside of the ship.

"And Kybo is kicking the Red Star's a-, butt." Pema began to say before changing her words, since Moyasu next to her.

Pema, Moyasu, and John, the captain, had arrived a few minutes ago on the Red Star plane and were now watching the battle below.

We watched for a few minutes, then heard a crashing noise behind us.

We spun around to see that a group of White Lotus sentries broke down the door and were in a fighting stance.

The sentries looked around, slightly puzzled, at all of the unconscious bodies around us, then looked at us.

"No need for a fight, men." Kasai assured them.

They immediately bowed.

"Your highness, we received your message." The head sentry, who seemed like a young girl, told her, then guestured to us. "And I am assuming that these are your allies?"

"You assume correctly." Kasai responded.

The sentries quickly parted as a man walked through the doorway and stopped in front of us. He was a bald, wise-looking old man with a blue arrow tattoo on his forehead.

Kasai bowed quickly, which shocked all of us since Kasai wasn't the kind of woman to bow to others.

"Master Kaze." Kasai greeted. "It's an honor."

My jaw dropped a little as I heard her say "It's an honor".

The man bowed back.

"Greetings, your highness." Kaze responded.

"Master Kaze!" Pema exclaimed. "It's great to see you again!"

Dante kept quiet, but still smiled at Kaze.

Joy looked just as confused as I was.

"Wow, Pema, I haven't seen you in years." Kaze responded with a smile.

Pema turned towards us.

"This is Master Kaze, son of Jinora, the most powerful airbender alive, the Grand Lotus, and our great uncle." Pema explained.

Kaze smiled in response, then nodded towards the sentries, which caused all of them to leave except for the young sentry who greeted us before.

"This is Nora." Kaze explained. "You can trust her. Now, tell us everything."

Nora bowed in response.

I noticed more about Nora. She seemed a bit younger than I was. Although she was wearing White Lotus garments, she had the war paint, headdress, and fans attributed with Kyoshi Warriors.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Nora told us.

"You too." Dante, who had stayed silent this whole time, said with a warm smile.

Nora sheepishly looked at the floor. If I had a hunch, I would guess that she was blushing underneath the war paint.

Then, Nora's face turned serious.

"Anyways, we should get down to business." She told us as she pulled a folded piece of paper from her pocket.

She unfolded it and showed it to us.

It said: The Red Star is listening. We don't know who to trust. Act normal.

Kasai quickly mouthed out "explain", then began to speak.

"There was an attempt to assassinate me." Kasai continued, trying to act normal.

"Why would that be?" Kaze asked, waiting for Nora to finish scribbling a message into a new piece of paper.

"I don't know for sure, but I think that they are trying to take down world leaders." Kasai explained as Nora handed a new message to her.

I peaked at the message, which said: We know that the Red Star has infiltrated our ranks. If they know that we know, Red Star cells will activate around the world.

"Ishi is member of the Red Star." Kasai continued to say. "He seems to be spearheading this mission."

Kaze nodded slowly, then guestured for us to follow him.

We followed him to the docking bay, where the other sentries were waiting, along with a few White Lotus planes.

Kaze turned back towards us.

"We're going to head to the White Lotus headquarters." Kaze explained. "We will rendezvous with Avatar."

Kybo's POV

The White Lotus ships had finally broken through the blockade and were docking onshore.

I saw hundreds of White Lotus soldiers pour out of the ships, incapacitating the scattered Red Star troops.

My work was done.

As soon as I thought this, I felt all of the power leave me.

Then the fire shooting out of my feet fizzled out.

And I plummeted.

I tried to ignite the fire again, but I get too weak.

Suddenly, a large shadow loomed over me and something caught me by the shirt.

I looked up to see that Cinder had caught me.

He lowered me to the ground, where I collapsed, out of breath.

"Thanks buddy, I owe you one. Gimme a minute." I told Cinder between gasps.

Cinder responded with a soft snort.

After a couple minutes, I was about to climb on the back of Cinder and take off, but something caught my eye.

I squinted and saw a few White Lotus planes heading in our direction.

Cinder started growling as they came near, but I stroked his mane and soothed him.

"It's okay buddy, they're friendly."

Most of them stopped and hover in the air, but two of them continued forward and landed next to us.

As they landed, I saw Kuki lumber from the battlefield next to the planes.

Disembarking from the planes were Marcus, Dante, Joy, Moyasu, Kasai, an old man with a blue arrow tattoo, a girl that looked like a Kyoshi Warrior, and Pema.

Without warning, Pema ran forwards tackled me in hug, surprising me.

"Thank you, Kybo." Pema softly told me.

I just continued to hug her.

We were interrupted by Kasai, who was clearing her throat, so Pema and I broke up the hug.

"Avatar, thank you for protecting my sister." Kasai said. "What happened to Ishi, Jordan, and Jack?"

I paused for a moment, remembering Jordan.

I began to explain.

"Jack was actually a member of the Red Star this whole time, Ishi killed Jordan, the yacht sunk. Jack held a knife to Moyasu's throat."

I could tell that Kasai's blood was boiling with anger, but she tried not to show it.

"Where are Ishi and Jack?" Kasai asked, suppressing her fury.

"They are floating in the ocean a few miles out."

Kasai nodded.

"I will find them the deepest, darkest cell in the Fire Nation." Kasai told me.

I grinned and nodded.

Kasai perked up, like she just remembered something, and guestured to the old man whom she had come with.

"Anyways, this is Master Kaze, leader of the White Lotus. You can tell him everything." Kasai told me, putting an emphasis on "everything".

I remember hearing about Master Kaze, Chuck mentioned him at the Eastern Air Temple. I also remembered hearing that he is the son of Jinora, the granddaughter of Avatar Aang.

"It's an honor to meet you." I told him while bowing.

"I should be saying the same thing to you." Kaze responded with a warm smile.

That thought made me a little giddy, but I maintained my composure.

"This is Nora." Kaze said, pointing at the Kyoshi Warrior next to him. "She is one of the people that I trust the most."

Nora nodded at me and I nodded back.

"Anyways, we are going to head to the White Lotus headquarters." Kasai told me. "We want you to come too."

Then she glanced at Pema, who was still sitting next to me.

"Are you going back on the plane?" Kasai asked.

"No thanks." Pema politely declined.

Kasai nodded.

"Take care, Pema." Kasai said one last time before everyone else got on both planes.

The two planes, as well as Kuki, took off and joined the other planes.

That just left Pema and I (and Cinder).

I turned towards her and did something I didn't expect.

I scolded her.

"Pema, why did you let yourself be dragged down into the water with me?!" I asked bewildered. "You could have died! I'm not worth dying for!"

Pema paused for a moment.

"Because if there was the slightest chance to save you, I would have taken it." Pema slowly responded.

She sighed and kept talking.

"Listen Kybo, I'm sorry I worried you, it's just that I couldn't le-."

She was interrupted when I did something else I didn't expect.

I kissed her.

And she me kissed back.

We kissed for about ten more seconds, until Cinder let out a few short groans that kinda sounded like a laugh.

We stopped kissing and I glared at Cinder, then turned back towards Pema.

"We should probably go, before we loose sight of the planes." I told her.

She quickly nodded and I leapt onto Cinder with one leap using airbending (awesome) and Pema leapt onto Cinder behind me and wrapped her hands around my waist (even more awesome).

"Let's go buddy." I told Cinder.

Cinder immediately took to the skies at top speed, racing towards the White Lotus planes.

And the whole time, Pema nuzzled her head against the back of my neck and I felt warm and fuzzy, despite the freezing winds.

* * *

_**Ishi's POV**_

It had been about six hours since the battle ended, and I was sitting in a dark, wooden cell a few miles away from the palace.

Suddenly, I heard a crash outside of my cell as a guard slammed into the bars of my cell and slumped to the floor.

I looked up to see a familiar figure in black and red augmentation armor.

"Ah, if it isn't the mighty Pyro." I mocked. "So, are you here to spring me?"

"I'm not here for that." He responded in a robotic voice. "I'm here to tell you that everything you own is mine."

"You can't do that." I told him. "I don't know if you remember, but I don't serve you."

"No, you don't." Pyro responded. "But since you were the Chief of Police, Republic City was your domain until now. Now that you are in prison, you have lost all of your power."

He sighed.

"Now, all I need to do is pull some strings to make one of my men become the Chief of Police." Pyro continued.

I slammed my hands against the bars of the prison.

"I will kill you once I get out of here!" I yelled.

"That's the thing, Ishi." Pyro mused. "You aren't getting out of here."

Then he lit his hand on fire.

"Not alive."

* * *

**This is, by far, the largest chapter I'be ever made. I was debating whether to make The Siege on the Fire Nation four parts, but I choose not to. Anyways, thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	13. The White Lotus

**Wassup, I'm back. I hope you enjoyed the Siege on the Fire Nation arch. I enjoyed making it. I hope you guys like this story so far. Anyways, I'm planning on making this story 25 chapters, maybe more. Also, I will be taking breaks of multiple weeks every so often to write a few more chapters to get ahead. So, yeah. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Dante's POV_**

On the planes (along with Cinder and Kuki), we flew to a nearby White Lotus airship, since we would have a long way to go until we got to the base.

The base was located in the Eastern Air Temple, which had been destroyed beyond repair, so it got turned into a base.

It would take about a day to reach it.

When we landed in the hangar bay, I couldn't help but feel a small feeling of deja vu from when we landed in Ishi's ship.

Once we got there, all eleven of us (including the two pilots) climbed off and started walking towards the door leading inside of the ship.

Once we were in the corridors, I approached Nora.

"So, you're a Kyoshi Warrior?" I asked.

She looked up, a little surprised at the question, then answered.

"Not really." She admitted. "I was kicked out."

I raised an eyebrow.

"How come?"

She looked sheepishly at the ground, then sighed.

"I'm an earthbender."

"What's wrong with that?" I asked curiously.

"The Kyoshi Warriors are supposed to be a group of nonbender girls." Nora explained. "I hid my bending from them because my dream was to join them. Once I was discovered and kicked out, I joined the White Lotus to do some good."

She looked back at me.

"So what is the Red Spirit doing with the Avatar?"

"How did you-?"

"You have the exact same build and weapons." Nora explained. "The only difference is the lack of the mask."

"So, you're a former Kyoshi Warrior, a member of the White Lotus, and a detective?" I joked.

Nora smiled and laughed.

"I guess so."

Suddenly, Nora snapped into full attention when a faint crackling sound sounded. I realized that the sound was coming her comms.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Someone's communicating with me on comms." She explained, then held out a finger to quiet me.

I watched as her face turned ghastly.

"What is it?" I prodded.

Nora looked at me gravely.

"Ishi was killed."

"How?" I asked.

She paused for a moment.

"He was burned to death, so was the entire compound."

**_Kybo's POV_**

After hearing about the news from Nora, we walked into a council room.

One of the pilots took Joy and Moyasu to another room and the other pilot stood outside the room we were in as we discussed Ishi's death

"I say good riddance." I snorted.

Kasai spoke up.

"Maybe, but this is something that we can't ignore. Someone high up in the food chain didn't want Ishi talking."

I slowly nodded, knowing that she was right.

Marcus turned towards us.

"It could have been Pyro. Maybe we can find out how to get our parents back if we find him!" Marcus said enthusiastically. "Maybe we can plan some kind of attack to get them back!"

I held out a hand and spoke.

"Calm down. Our best option is to beat the Red Star first."

Marcus looked at me, bewildered.

"Wait, you want to leave them?!" Marcus exclaimed. "I thought that this was the reason that you wanted go against the Red Star."

I shook my head.

"At first, yes, but the Red Star is dangerous and the best way to get them back." I explained. "We can't just go in guns blazing."

Marcus looked genuinely shocked.

He sat silent for a few moments, then spoke.

"The only reason I went along with this was to protect you and to save our parents." Marcus said flatly. "Looks like you got the former part covered, so I don't know what I'm doing here."

Marcus pushed himself up and started walking towards the door.

"Marcus!" I called as he walked out of the room.

I felt a mixture of rage and guilt when he slammed the door, but it immediately subsided when Pema put her hand on mine.

"He'll come around." She told me.

I smiled back.

Kaze cleared his throat, so we focused on him.

"Anyways, we can speak freely in here, we put the camera feed in the hangar bay on a loop, so they think that we are there." Kaze explained. "Meanwhile, the camera feed in here is also on a loop, so it looks like it's empty. Anyways, let's discuss what has happened to you, Avatar."

So I explained everything. Pyro's attack on our house, how we met Pema and Dante, Cresent Island, and everything else that happened leading up to this battle.

Kaze nodded slowly, digesting the information that I told him.

"Quite the tale, Avatar." Kaze stated. "No wonder Marcus wants to find your parents so badly."

Kasai nodded in agreement.

The reminder of Marcus made me feel angry and guilty again.

As if I jinxed it, I heard the door open to see Marcus.

Marcus glared at me, then respectfully bowed towards Kaze.

"Master Kaze, I understand if you don't want to use your resources to get our parents back." Marcus said. "Which is why I want to try to help them alone. All I ask for is one of your planes and one of your pilots to fly me to Republic City."

"What?!" I asked, bewildered. "No!"

Marcus fired another glare in my direction.

"Last time I checked, I don't answer to you." Marcus growled.

I turned towards Kaze.

"Master Kaze, you really can't be considering this." I pleaded.

Kaze turned towards me.

"I'm not considering this." Kaze reassured. "Marcus isn't going anywhere."

I saw disappointment wash over Marcus' face, no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.

Marcus slowly nodded and walked out of the room again.

There was silence for a few moments.

Kaze looked back at us.

"Pyro, or whoever he truly is, clearly has an end goal for the world." Kaze told us, then looked at Pema and Dante. "Your input will be quite valuable, due to your time fighting the Red Star."

Dante shrugged and spoke.

"We have been against the Red Star for quite some time, but we have no idea what their end goal is."

"I think I know." Kasai said.

Our heads all turned to her.

Kasai took a deep breath, then spoke.

"The captain who fried the radio on Ishi's ship said something before I knocked him out." Kasai explained. "He said that their goal was to make the world one nation. To get rid of all boundaries."

"That sounds like Zaheer." Nora blurted.

I suddenly remembered that name.

"When we were interrogating Chuck on Cresent Island, he told us that the Red Star was just a Fire Nation cell inside of the White Lotus since the Hundred Year War." I began to say, earning everyone's attention. "He told me that Zaheer gave them a higher purpose and led them from within his prison."

Kaze digested this information for a few moments, then spoke.

"Zaheer was an anarchist. He wanted no nations, rather than one." Kaze explained. "My guess is that his time in prison allowed him to see the flaws in anarchy. People would still continue to divide each other. So he must have wanted to make the world one nation."

"I know a little bit about Zaheer, but that's it." I admitted. "Who is he?"

"Zaheer was the leader of a White Lotus splinter group called the Red Lotus. He was defeated by Avatar Korra more than two decades before I was born." Kaze explained.

Kaze looked gravely at me, then spoke.

"If the Red Lotus' poison is responsible for Avatar Kiana's death, than this is situation is more dire than we expected."

"Did you know Avatar Kiana?" I asked curiously.

Kaze nodded, then spoke again.

"She was a kind young woman. Kiana was the closest thing to a daughter I have had."

Suddenly, an alarm sounded through the room.

"It's the hangar bay door!" Nora yelled.

My eyes widened.

"Marcus." I muttered under my breath.

I ran out of the room and sped down the hallway towards the hangar bay, finding a few unconscious guards on the way there.

When I burst into the hangar bay, the wind immediately whipped at my face because of the hangar door being open.

I scanned the area and finally spotted Marcus inside of one of the planes' cockpits, the propeller spinning.

"Marcus!" I yelled.

If he heard me, he didn't show it.

I watched as the plane slowly started rolling toward the open hangar door.

Then it fell off the edge.

I despair washed over me.

Then I saw the plane again through the hangar door.

He had taken off.

Relief that Marcus hadn't just died flooded me, but I still felt despair.

Marcus has gone rogue.

* * *

**_Marcus' POV_**

I was a little hesitant to try to fly a plane, but I found it isn't too different from a Satomobile. Still, I wasn't perfect.

I didn't want to do this, but I had to. There was someone that I needed to see, someone that can help me get my parents back, but it is a risk.

I only know him by reputation, and if he agrees to help me, I will have to give something in return.

This is the most extreme thing that I have done in my life and I will be lucky to come out of this alive.

I sighed and set the coordinates to Republic City.

* * *

**This chapter will be the start of something huge. Thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	14. Split

**Hey guys. At this point, I don't know what to put in the beginning note, except to enjoy. So yeah. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

I just stood there in the hangar bay in disbelief, staring out of the open hangar door.

"Kybo!" I heard Pema call behind me.

I turned and saw her alongside Kaze approaching me.

"Marcus took off in a plane." I explained.

"We know." Kaze responded. "We got to the door when it happened."

"We have to find him." Pema told me.

I nodded.

"No." Kaze said flatly.

We both turned towards him.

"What do you mean 'No'?!" I asked.

"Marcus made his choice, we can't waste resources to get him back." Kaze responded.

"So Marcus is a waste?!" I yelled.

I couldn't believe it.

"Listen Kybo, Marcus made his choice, our focus should be on the Red Star." Kaze explained.

I wanted to argue, I wanted to yell, I wanted to hop on one of the planes and take off after Marcus.

But I didn't.

I just took a deep breath and accepted the situation.

"Fine." I said, reluctantly.

Marcus' POV

After a few hours of flying, I finally was getting close to my destination, Republic City.

As I neared, I remembered something I heard on TV. Taking off in a plane is easy, but landing is the hard part.

After a few minutes of thinking as Republic City crept over the horizon, I decided that there was only one place that I could land this without potentially killing myself.

The water.

This was going to be an expensive land.

As Republic City continued to inch closer, I decided it was time.

I lowered my self until I was about thirty feet above the surface and slowed down drastically.

Then I jumped off the plane

I cut through the surface cleanly and immediately rocketed back up towards the surface.

When I broke the surface, I saw the plane slowly lose altitude until it crashed into the water and slowly sunk.

I ignored the fact that I destroyed an expensive White Lotus plane and created a long piece of ice under my feet, which acted like a surfboard.

When I balanced on the makeshift surfboard, I rocketed across the water to the awaiting Republic City Bay.

Surprisingly, crashing a plane won't be the dumbest thing I plan to do today.

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

Joy was a mess when I told her about Marcus.

After a few minutes of crying, Joy just turned apathetic and stopped emotionally reacting to anything.

We left Joy and Moyasu with a White Lotus sentry as we did before and resumed our meeting.

Marcus' POV

I managed to reach the Republic City bay undetected and climbed onto the dock.

For the next half-hour, I strolled through the city to my destination.

As I walked, the city gradually got duller, emptier, and more downtrodden.

Finally, I knew that I reached my destination once the building started to show graffiti and the area was devoid of people.

This was the area that the Republic City citizens called The Rat.

The Rat was the slums of Republic City, mainly because no one is stupid enough to live here because it is infested with Triad Members.

The law rarely finds it's way down to the Rat, so anything can happen here.

Just as I thought that, I heard a couple voices beside me.

"Hey kid!" I heard.

I turned to see a pale, skinny man in his early twenties who had a punk, emo look to him. He had messy, jet-black hair, a leather jacket rolled up to him elbows, a serpent tattoo winding around his neck, and eyeshadow. There was something strangely menacing about him. Maybe the cold, calculated stare in his eyes.

A Triad member.

"Don't you know these parts are dangerous?" The tattooed man said with a hidden warning.

"Not to me." I retorted.

He let out a humorless chuckle.

"You sure about that kid?" Tattoo man snickered.

"I'm actually looking for danger." I responded.

The man smirked.

"I like you kid. What kind of danger are you talking about?" He prodded.

"The Count."

The man's face didn't flinch.

"You think that you can walk straight in our base and meet the Count? Just because you asked nicely?" The tattooed man mocked. "Most Triad Members haven't even met him."

I sighed.

"Can you get me there? I want to join the Triad." I lied. "I'm a powerful waterbender."

The man scowled.

"I'll be the judge of that. And yes, I can get you to the Count. I'm one of the higher-ups in the triad." The man said. "You got a name, kid?"

"You first." I responded smugly.

The man scowled again before speaking.

"Mace."

Mace pointed his chin towards me, motioning me to tell him my name.

He was probably lying about his name, but I have a feeling that he'll know if I lie, so I'll take my chances.

"Marcus."

Mace crossed his arms.

"So 'Marcus', you want an audience with the Count?" He asked again.

I nodded.

"Tell me, kid, do you know how the Count got his name?" Mace prodded.

I took a deep breath.

"His bloodbending. He is the strongest bloodbender since Amon and is able to bloodbend outside of the full moon." I responded.

Mace nodded.

"You seem like a smart kid, but that's not the full story." He told me. "He was trained by his father, who was the triad leader before him, how to bloodbend. He utilized his new skill by killing his first man by draining the man's blood out through his neck."

That last sentence sent chills up my spine.

"You still sure you want to meet him?" Mace asked.

I swallowed my fear and slowly nodded.

"You said that you were a waterbender, right?"

I nodded.

"I am one of the Count's enforcers, also a waterbender, so if he learns that a young, anxious recruit beat one of his enforcers, he will want to see this kid." Mace explained.

I narrowed my eyes.

"What are you saying?" I slowly asked, even though I knew what he was asking.

Mace said exactly what I expected.

"If you beat me in a fight, than you can get an audience with the Count."

I sighed, then looked up from the floor.

"Then let's get on with it." I said.

Mace got in a fighting stance as I surveyed the area.

Plenty of space and large puddles of water from a nearby rainstorm.

Once I was done surveying the area, I got in a fighting stance as well.

Then the duel started.

Mace lifted some water from a nearby puddle and it spun around him like a buzzsaw.

I quickly backed off as Mace approached, the water ring around him clipping my shirt, but not drawing blood.

I responded by firing a blast of water at the ring, causing it to exploded in water droplets.

I was about to launch another attack when a water blast nailed me in the side of the head.

I felt a faint ringing in my head from the blow and backed up into an ankle deep puddle.

"You play too nice, kid." Mace mocked. "Fight like a triad member."

I was about to launch another attack when another water attack hit me in the head again, this time freezing my face.

My yells were muffled and my vision was distorted inside of the ice. I tried to move, but I realized that my feet were frozen in place.

Through the ice, I saw Mace building up water from nearby ponds for a large attack.

Then he released it.

The blow hit me in the chest like a massive punch to the gut, breaking the ice encasing my feet and shattering the ice encasing my blow felt like a massive punch to the gut.

I was sprawled out in a muddy puddle, gut screaming at me, vision blurry.

Then I remembered what Mace said. You play too nice, fight like a triad member.

I slowly turned my head to the side, every muscle in my body aching, and looked at the muddy puddle I was in.

Wait a minute. Mud.

I grinned, feeling confident in my new plan.

I lifted my head up to look at Mace, who was slowly walking towards me.

"Is that all you got?" I taunted.

I saw the slightest look of anger flash across his face as he sped up is walking pace.

Then, he was in place.

With surprising energy, I kicked myself up and fired the muddy water towards Mace.

But not towards his totes, towards his face.

The muddy water flew straight into his eyes, causing him to cry out and squeeze his eyes shut.

Using the water from a nearby pond, I created a water whip and froze the tip of it to a point.

I used the whip to cut his right ankle, causing him to sink to one knee.

I raised my hands in the air, slowly lifting all the water from the nearby ponds.

I concentrated the water into one large sphere about two feet in diameter, then froze it.

With one final heave, I fired the sphere of ice straight into Mace. I heard the wind get knocked out of him as the ice ball shattered against his chest.

Mace slumped back, weezing from the impact.

I could help but grin at my success.

I beat him.

As I was celebrating, Mace's hand shot out.

I gasped as I felt an sharp pain that was like a fire in my muscles. Like every blood vessel in my body was imbedded with needles.

Mace slowly pushed himself up, arm still outstretched, then moved his hand further upwards, lifting me into the air.

I suddenly realized what was happening.

I was being bloodbent.

I felt like I would faint from the pain when, suddenly, I was released.

I fell on my hands and knees as I was gasping for air.

"You fought good, kid. Even though I was taking it easy on you." I heard Mace say.

I looked up at him, vision blurry from the pain and exhaustion.

"How... can you... bloodbend... outside of the full moon?" I asked between gasps.

There was silence for a few moments, besides the sound of my gasping.

"The answer is obvious now." Mace said.

It all suddenly dawned on me as he spoke my thoughts.

"I am the Count." Mace told me. "Now, what do you want from me?"

I slowly pushed myself to my feet, spat out blood, then made eye contact with Mace.

"Teach me to bloodbend."

* * *

**I hope you like this chapter. The next chapter will have a darker turn. Anyways, thanks for reading. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	15. Blood and Fire

**Hey guys, sorry I didn't post last Saturday, I don't have an excuse. I'm excited to write this chapter, so I hope you like it. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

After, what felt like an eternity, we finally made it to the Eastern Air Temple.

When we landed and disembarked, we were greeted by a tall, lean man with amber eyes in White Lotus garbs. Judging by his pale skin, I could tell that he was from the Fire Nation.

The man bowed in the air nomad fashion in Kaze's direction out of respect.

"Master Kaze."

"Master Rhaegar." Kaze responded with a Fire Nation bow.

"Master Rhaegar is the second-in-command of the White Lotus." Nora whispered towards me.

After Kaze was finished bowing, Rhaegar bowed in my direction.

"It's an honor to meet you Avatar." He said humbly.

I performed the standard Fire Nation bow in response.

"You have much to learn, young Avatar." Rhaegar told me. "I'm one of the top firebending masters in the White Lotus, I can teach you a thing or two."

I was flattered, but I knew I had to turn down his offer.

"Sorry, I think it's best that I learn earthbending for now, my airbending also needs lots of work." I sheepishly said.

Rhaegar shrugged.

"If you change your mind, let me know."

Rhaegar turned around and walked away.

Joy, who stood quietly in the back, spoke up.

"So who's going to teach Kybo earthbending?" Joy asked Kaze curiously.

Kaze gave her a small smile.

"I can't think of anyone better than Nora."

Nora's head swiveled in Kaze's direction.

"M-me?!" Nora stuttered. "Why?!"

"You are calm, patient, and disciplined." Kaze responded. "I trust you."

Nora stood there, shocked, then bowed in response.

"Thank you, Master Kaze." Nora said to him.

Kaze nodded, then turned towards Dante.

"Dante, can you come with me?" Kaze asked, then looked towards the rest of us. "Nora can train Kybo in earthbending and Pema can train him in airbending."

"What about me?" Joy peeped.

"You can watch Kybo train." Kaze responded.

Joy crossed her arms.

"I'm sure that there are better things for a combustionbender to do." Joy pouted.

Kaze raised an eyebrow.

"You're a combustionbender?"

Joy puffed out her chest and nodded with a smug grin.

"Most combustionbenders have the third eye tattoo to help focus their powers, maybe you want one?" Kaze asked.

Joy jumped up and down in joy (no pun intended).

"Mom's gunna be pissed." I muttered under my breath.

I watched as Joy and Dante walked away with Kaze.

"By Dante." Nora said with a sheepish smile.

"Bye Nora." Dante responded with a sly wink.

It was hard to tell through the war paint, but I knew that Nora was blushing.

Nora pulled her gaze away from Dante and turned towards me and Pema.

"Pema, is it okay if I start with earthbending lessons?" Nora asked Pema.

Pema shrugged.

"Whatever you want." Pema casually responded.

"I'll go get ready, you guys stay here for now." Nora added before running off.

Pema and I stood under the shade of the airship in silence, waiting for her. Meanwhile, my mind was on Marcus. Was he fine? Was he hurt? What is he's dead?

Pema seemed to sense what I was thinking.

"I'm sure Marcus is fine, he's tough." Pema assured, then smirked. "But the whole brooding vibe matches well with you."

Pema then laced her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze.

I smiled in response.

Thank God for Pema.

We heard footsteps coming our way and quickly dropped our hands.

We looked up to see... Nora? She looked completely different.

She still had her fans, but that was about it. She had black combat boots, dark green trousers, and a green and beige long sleeve shirt with the White Lotus symbol on it, which was tucked into her pants with a belt. She had also washed off her war paint and tied her hair in a thick ponytail.

She looked like a military lieutenant.

Nora held her hands behind her back and moved her legs about a foot and a half apart.

"Shall we begin?" Nora asked with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

**_Marcus' POV_**

It was getting dark and the moon was starting to rise, a full moon, luckily.

Mace held up a rat that he found in an alley by the tail.

"What do you want me to do with a rat?" I asked in a snarky manner, trying to act tough.

"I think that you know why." Mace responded coolly.

Mace let go of the writhing rat and levitated it in the air with bloodbending, the rat releasing ear-piercing squeals, that made me feel bad for it.

I shook those thought from my head. My waterbending alone wasn't enough to save my parents, I needed something else.

"Reach out, feel the pulse of the rat, feel it's fear, it's pain." Mace instructed.

I reached out and focused.

I could feel it. How terrified the rat was, it's need to escape, it's pain.

I didn't want to do it.

But I had to.

I seized control of the rat, lifting it farther into the air, causing it to writhe and squeal.

I felt terrible about doing this.

"Keep bloodbending the rat until I come back." Mace instructed. "Make the process as painful as possible."

Mace walked out of the alley that we were practicing and turned around the corner.

I continued to bloodbend the rat. I could feel it's pulse, it's panic.

I tried to hold back tears.

I never thought that I could care about something as tiny as a rat.

It had been a few minutes, so Mace was probably gone.

I released the rat.

"Run away." I whispered.

The rat began to scurry away, but didn't get far because he was seized and raised into the air again.

And it wasn't me.

I turned to see Mace in the entrance of the alley, arm outstretched.

He never left.

"Bloodbending is about being merciless, if you can't stomach it, than you can't bloodbend." Mace scolded.

With the slightest movement of his finger, the rat's neck snapped like a toothpick.

Mace pulled another rat from the corner of the alley and held it up to my face.

"Again."

* * *

**_Pyro's POV _**

I peeked around a corner, watching the Avatar train with Nora and the little blonde girl, trying to scope out every detail.

I couldn't attack, It would just create a new Avatar, besides, I needed to be patient and build his trust.

I looked wearily at the dragon, who was blood-red and maybe forty feet long, curled up in a corner watching the kids train.

I doubt that I could defeat the Avatar, Nora, the little airbending girl, and the dragon.

I sighed walked out of my position straight up to the Avatar.

He smiled.

"Master Rhaegar." Kybo told me with a respectful bow.

I bowed in return.

"Is it okay if I watch, Kybo?"

The dragon growled at me.

"Don't worry, Cinder." Kybo reassured him. "Master Rhaegar isn't a threat."

I couldn't help but feel the urge to laugh when he said that.

He couldn't be more wrong.

* * *

**PLOT TWIST ALERT. Anyways, I'm glad that you read this. This is a bit short, but it will help set multiple events up. In the title, what I meant by Blood and Fire was Marcus, who was blood, and Kybo, who was fire. Anyways, see you next week. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja**


	16. Goals to Reach

**Hey guys. Just to let you know, I might be uploading less frequently, I'm just going to see how much work I have.**

* * *

**_Marcus' POV_**

For the entire night, I was forced to torture rats with blood bending before killing them.

It was dreadful, but eventually, I stopped being sad and just felt nothing.

This was the attitude that Mace was trying to teach me.

Mace just stood behind me and watched throughout the whole night.

When the sun finally came up, I was tired, hungry, and emotionally drained.

Mace looked completely unfazed from standing still for an entire night.

"Can we get something to eat?" I asked Mace as I listened to my growling stomach.

"Want something to eat?" Mace inquired with a raised eyebrow, then guestured to the pile of rats I had accumulated. "Eat them."

I looked at the rats, then at Mace.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked with wide eyes.

"You can use a fire if you want, but you need to learn to accept what you've done with bloodbending." Mace explained.

"Don't you have some Triad business to take care of?" I asked.

"The Triad can wait." Mace responded.

"Why do you care so much about training me?" I pried. "Can't you just teach me and be done with it, not just killing rats all night and eating them?"

Mace showed a look of visible annoyance, then let out a deep sigh.

"Bloodbending isn't a weapon, it's a beast. You need to feed it, let it grow strong. But also control it. I can't just stand by and let someone have a beast that he can't properly take care of it. Bloodbending is the only form of bending that can leave you open to insanity." Mace said. "And to control a beast, you also need to understand it."

Mace trust out his hand and I felt the horrible sensation of being bloodbent again as I was forced to the ground.

"What are you doing?!" I yelled between gasps.

"Helping you understand the beast."

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

Still couldn't cause more than a small tremor in the boulder I attempted to bend.

"Why isn't this working for me?" I growled.

"You can't seize control of the element." Nora explained. "You have to become one with it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, still frustrated.

Nora let out a soft sigh and looked at me with serious eyes.

"Kybo, put your hand on the boulder." Nora instructed.

I did as she said.

"Feel the substance of the boulder, feel every grain of sand on it, not with your hands, but with your mind." Nora continued to instruct.

I closed my eyes and tried to sense the rock, sense the boulder's composition.

The sensation rushed over me like a wave. I could feel it's composition, every single molecule inside of it.

I couldn't help but grin.

"I feel it." I told Nora as I opened my eyes.

I looked at Pema and she grinned back.

"Now, guide the substance where you want it to go." Nora kept instructing.

With one heave, I made a shoving motion.

The boulder flew across the room and crashed into the wall in front of me.

I jumped up and pumped my fist.

"Congratulations, Kybo." Master Rhaegar applauded.

I looked at him sheepishly.

"Sorry about the wall."

"It's alright, just don't do it again." Master Rhaegar assured as he approached me.

When he got near, Cinder growled ferociously.

"Cinder, I told you it's fine." I repeated for the fifth time.

The growling stopped, but his glare didn't.

"I would assume that he would be wary around people, since his mother was captured." Rhaegar said.

"Yeah." I nodded, then creased my eyebrow. "How do you know that?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then Master Rhaegar spoke.

"We know that a large dragon had been captured from Crescent Island, we didn't know that there was another one though." Master Rhaegar explained.

I slowly nodded.

"Master Rhaegar?" I asked after a moment.

"Yes, Kybo?"

"What's the Red Star's goal?"

Master Rhaegar seemed to be taken aback by the question, then took a deep breath and answered.

"The Red Star adheres to the principles of Zaheer." Rhaegar explained.

"So they want anarchy?"

"No." Rhaegar responded. "Zaheer's time in prison gave him time to realize the flaws in anarchy. People would just choose to divide themselves further and eventually pick leaders."

"So what do they want to do?" I curiously asked again.

Rhaegar looked deeply into my eyes.

"They want to overthrow the governments and turn the world into one nation."

* * *

**_Marcus' POV_**

The pain was so great that it felt like liquid fire tearing through my veins.

"Stop!" I begged Mace.

"You can't just attack other people with a weapon you don't understand." Mace responded. "You need to understand what you are inflicting upon others."

I tried to fight his hold on me, but that just caused fresh waves of pain to wash over me causing me to cry out.

It was too much.

"Fight it, no matter how much pain you feel!" Mace barked. "Are you a weakling?!"

I tried to say "I'm not a weakling" but it came out as whimper.

"Perhaps you are weak and you don't deserve this power, maybe I've just been wasting my time." Mace said dismissively.

Then, something else surged through my veins that was more powerful than pain.

Rage.

Pure, unrestrained rage.

"I'M NOT A WEAKLING!"

I broke through his bloodbending hold like wet paper and thrust him back with my own against a small warehouse plastered with graffiti.

I looked at my hands and clenched them.

So this is what true power feels like.

Mace slowly pushed himself up and looked genuinely shocked.

"It's not the full moon." He finally said.

It took me a moment to realize that this was true. It was broad daylight.

"The only living bloodbenders that can do that are you and I, the only one's before us were Amon, Yakone, Tarloq, and my father, the previous Count." Mace explained. "I could train you, make you stronger than before."

I didn't hesitate, I thrust my arm forward, lifting him upwards. Surprisingly, his facial expression barely changed, not a shred of pain in his expression.

"I have everything I need now to save my parents. I don't need you!" I snarled. "You've killed dozens of people! It's time for you to pay."

"You did this to save your mommy and daddy, huh, want to be a hero?" Mace taunted in response. "There's no hero work that can be done with this power. You can try your hardest, but you'll be a blunt weapon. Skill always beats power."

Mace shut his eyes, as if concentrating.

I suddenly felt lightheaded, my vision blurring. I collapsed to my knees, causing my bloodbending grip to be released.

"As I said, skill always beats power. I learned to use bloodbending I'm more unorthodox ways, like preventing blood flow to the brain." Mace said smugly while brushing off his arm for added effect as his voice became fainter. "You'll never be powerful. You will always be weak. Now be glad that I won't kill you where you stand."

I barely had time to process this when my vision finally blackened over and I lost all feeling in my body.

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

Joy, Nora, Pema, and I were eating noodles at a short wooden table with Master Kaze, where I was trying my hardest to contain my giddiness.

I can now bend all four elements.

"You still need training." Kaze told me as if reading my mind. "Especially with air and earthbending. But this is a major hurdle that you overcame, we'll done."

There was a moment of silence before Kaze spoke again.

"And one more thing." Kaze said as if he suddenly remembered something. "Be careful around Master Rhaegar."

I raised an eyebrow.

"How come?"

"There are only a few people I know are allied with the White Lotus," Kaze explained. "But with Rhaegar, I'm not sure I know who's his loyalties are with."

I slowly nodded, digesting his response.

I remembered at that moment what Master Rhaegar had said about Cinder. How did he know?

I mentally shrugged, probably not important, probably just some White Lotus stuff.

* * *

**Again, sorry for not posting in a while, I have no excuse besides laziness. Still, I hope you liked this chapter. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	17. Marcus' War Path: Part 1

**Sup guys, just to let you know, this chapter will mostly just be about Marcus, which I guess you can tell. I hope you like this chapter. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Dante's POV_**

After breakfast today, when Nora led Joy away to get her third-eye tattoo, I decided to head to my room. I wanted to try to figure out a plan of attack against the Red Star.

After a few minutes of walking, I made it back to my room. It was a simple room, almost exactly like the Western Air Temple, my home across the world.

At least it used to be.

I pushed those thoughts away and snatched up my backpack, which I had thrown into the corner of the room, and plopped down onto my bed.

I rummaged through my backpack for my maps, taking care as to not cut myself on my swords, which were strapped on the outside of it.

I started to feel alarmed as I kept rummaging, not feeling the maps anywhere.

I hastily dumped out it's contents of the bag onto my bed.

I sorted through the items, my mask, my cord gauntlet (which I snagged from a police station in Republic City), a large bag of trail mix, and a bison whistle.

No maps.

I could have sworn I had it in my backpack on the airship when I boarded.

There is only one thing that could have happened to it.

"Dammit, Marcus." I muttered under my breath.

* * *

**_Marcus' POV_**

After I (finally) got out of the Rat, I found a bench in a nearby plaza, dug into my pocket, and pulled out a crumpled map of the city covered in red marker.

I was glad I snagged this during my escape, regardless of the fact that it was Dante's.

A few buildings on the map were circled, but there was one closer to the edge of the city that was circled many times.

That was where I would probably find my parents.

I needed to get them back.

I looked at my hands, reflecting on the power that they held.

I was one of the most, of not the most powerful blood bender alive. I could definitely break them out.

Why didn't Kybo want to help our parents? He's the Avatar, he can do so much.

A little voice spoke from the back of my mind.

He's such a coward.

I shook that voice from my head. Kybo is the most caring boy I know. He's just a boy and he is burdened with the duties of being the Avatar

I began to feel guilty for leaving. I was supposed to protect him, and I abandoned him when he has all of this drama on his plate.

And then I remembered Joy. Little Joy who was probably broken up about me leaving.

I stared at the ground below me.

I really am a terrible brother.

I sprawled out on a bench and exhaustion washed over me like a tidal wave.

I may have abandoned them, but there's no turning back now.

I felt myself drift off as sleep washed over me.

I dreamt that I was in the middle of a dark room where everything was pitch black.

I began to wonder where I was when light washed over me like a spotlight was shone on me.

What lay around me caused my blood to turn to ice.

Men lay around me, clearly dead, skin as pale as milk with neck twisted at weird angles.

Their necks had been broken, and for some reason, I knew it was from bloodbending.

I kept looking at them when I recognized two of the bodies.

Kybo and Joy.

A tear choked voice called out behind me.

"Marcus?"

I turned to see mom, who was shielded by dad with a spotlight shown on them as well.

I was so happy to see them.

I took a step forward, but they took a step back.

I realized who dad was shielding mom from.

It was me.

I looked at the bodies, then at them.

They though that I had done this.

"How could you Marcus?!" Dad called out.

"B-but, I didn't." I stuttered. "This wasn't me!"

"Why have you done this?" Whispered a voice so close to my ear, that I could hear their breathing.

I whipped around to see Kybo, neck still bent at an unnatural angle.

I was about to say that I didn't do it again, when Joy suddenly picked herself up and said the same thing robotically.

"How could you do this?"

One by one, the bodies picked themselves up and they all repeated the same thing at once.

"How could you do this? How could you do this?"

I crouched down, clutched my head, and shut my eyes, trying to block out the voices, but nothing would work.

I didn't do this. I didn't do this.

"I DIDN'T DO THIS!" I bellowed out.

Then I shot up from the bench, drenched in sweat, hyperventilating.

I took a few minutes to regain my composure, then I wiped the sweat from my brow and looked at the sky.

It was morning when I fell asleep, now it was the evening, so I had to have slept like nine or ten hours.

I wiped the grit out of my eyes and sat up.

My stomach rumbled from not eating in, like, a day and a half, but I couldn't worry about that now.

I studied at the building that was circle repeatedly on map and realized it wasn't some office building, it was a mansion.

Took me a minute to recognize it as the Sato mansion, which was the former home of Asami Sato, which became a museum after she passed away.

I remember dad taking me to that museum, along with Kybo and Joy. Asami Sato helped revolutionize the city and was Avatar Korra's wife.

How could they have a base in a museum?

I suddenly remembered hearing rumors in the museum about her father being an equalist, who has a secret base under the mansion and they tried to cover it up to protect her reputation.

If there was any chance the Red Star has a base, it would be there.

I gauged the distance between my current position and the museum and came to the conclusion that it would probably be dark by the time I reach there.

I was glad because that would mean the museum would be closed and I would be under the cover of darkness.

I was right, it was dark by the time I got there. Nothing but security guards.

Silent as a cat, I crept along the perimeter in the shrubbery, working my way around the end.

Whether or not the security guards were part of the Red Star or not, I didn't want to pick fights, since there had to be at least a few benders within the group.

Once I finally worked my way around to the other side, I saw it. A humongous shed three times the size of my parent's house. Guarding it were four security guards standing at the doorway and two more walking around the area in front

There was something fishy about them. Shouldn't they be patrolling other parts of the property instead of heavily guarding a part of the property that isn't even part of the museum?

This had to be the place.

I ripped off a part of my sleeve and waited for one of the security guards to wander close to my hiding spot.

After seemingly an eternity of waiting, one of them finally got within a nearby distance from me.

I reached out and performed a quick pulling motion with my arm.

As expected, the man was pulled towards me like he was on an invisible leash.

Before he could scream, I threw him to the floor beside me, jumped on top of him, and shoved the sleeve chunk into his mouth, using it like a gag.

I pinned him to the ground using bloodbending, his cried muffled, and began to interrogate him.

"A few weeks ago, were a female firebender and male waterbender brought here? Just nod or shake your head."

The man yelled something into his gag, probably something unflattering.

I sighed and, with the slightest twitch of my fingers, snapped his little finger on his left hand like a toothpick.

His screams of pain were so loud that I thought the other guards might hear him, but I peaked over my hiding place and saw that they heard nothing.

I stared unblinkingly into his eyes.

"I am going to remove your gag, I want details. If you scream, your neck will face the same fate as your finger." I warned. "Understood?"

The man quickly nodded and I removed his gag, hoping to all things good that he didn't scream. Luckily, he did no such thing.

Through heaving breaths of pain, he answered my question.

"Yeah, a couple of people matching that description were marched through here a few weeks back." He explained. "Are they important to you?"

I glared at him.

"That's none of your concern." I answered with venom in my voice.

The man didn't question that response.

Suddenly, worry crept into my voice as to why he asked that.

"Why did you ask that?" I asked cautiously. "What's happening to them?"

The man looked like he was about to dash, but he answers.

"From what I know the higher-ups have been interrogating them. Doing unspeakable things to them that I couldn't imagine." The man explained. "I only know this from hearing their screams."

The man gulped before saying something that made his blood turn to ice.

"Until the screaming stopped yesterday."

No, they couldn't be... no, they weren't.

I had to get them out.

* * *

**Thanks for reading. The next chapter will also be about Marcus. Anyways, thanks. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	18. Marcus' War Path: Part 2

**Um... sorry I haven't posted in a while. School's an absolute b*tch. Anyways, sorry, let's resume.**

* * *

**_Marcus' POV _**

I thrusted my captive guard out of the bushes using bloodbending, who promptly plowed through another guard keeping watch.

The three other guards snapped into attention and raised there fists, each launching fireballs at my hiding spot.

I rolled aside as the bush I was hiding behind exploded.

Great, now the other guards will know what's happening.

With a fluid motion of my arms, water flew out of my water skin and hardened into ice, which nailed one of the guards in the head, causing him to crumple to the ground.

I lifted up the other two guards in my bloodbending grasp and slammed them together, lifted them up, then threw them back down, knocking one out and causing the other one roll over and groan in pain.

The guard that had been my captive and the other guard I threw him into staggered to their feet.

I stretched out my hands and lifted them off their feet and made a squeezing motion.

The guards started to gasp for air, but could breath through their constricted windpipes.

It was only a few moments before they lost consciousness.

Keep it up, a voice inside me said, keep choking them.

I contemplated that decision for a moment.

No. I had to find my parents.

I dropped the guards and started dragging one of them into the shed rushed forward

As I strolled into the shed, I saw that the inside was empty, except for a large trapdoor in the center of the room.

I pried it open and peered inside and saw some kind of elevator without walls that seemed to descend diagonally.

To late to go back now.

I barred the door behind me, stripped the unconscious guard of his uniform and changed into it.

I hopped onto the platform, pulled a lever to my right, and descended into the depths of the ground.

When I arrived at the bottom, I arrived in area that had to be five-hundred feet long and had a ceiling a hundred feet from the ground.

There were much less Red Star guards than I expected, maybe twenty-five strewn throughout the base.

I tried my best to look casual and strolled over towards the nearest guard, who was lean, had a face of dark facial hair, and had black combat armor. He didn't have a weapon so I assumed he was a bender.

"Where is everyone?" I asked the guard.

The guard looked a little puzzled.

"Didn't you hear? The Big Man needed all hands on deck, some of us are dispersing throughout the city and others are ready to converge on the Eastern Air Temple where the White Lotus is."

Oh no, that was where Kybo, Joy, and the others were.

I tried to hide my panic and kept talking.

"I need to see the two prisoners."

The man chuckled.

"If they didn't talk to that goth dude, there's no way they're talking to you." The guard teased. "The one still there is in terrible shape. Bloodbending is seriously seems like a painful torture method, but I'm surprised that neither of them said a thing."

Bloodbending. Goth dude. The one still there.

"The goth dude? The Count?!" I exclaimed.

The man gave me a sideways glance.

"Of course. You must be new. Makes sense because I've never seen a guard as young as you." The guard stated. "Anyways 'The Count' thinks he can boss us around just because his dad helped take down Avatar Kiana. They were already rewarded handsomely, that doesn't make him my boss. Either way he's freaky and recieved his daddy's spoils after he died."

Mace knew about my parents. No, he didn't just know, he tortured them,

"What does this have to do with the prisoners?" I asked, wanting to see my parents as soon as possible.

The guard shrugged. "Nothing I guess, you can go. It's the second door on the right wall."

I practically sprinted towards the door where the man said they were.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

I saw, in the wide room, my father's body, shirtless, pale as milk, head twisted in a strange angle, covered in cuts, and chained to the wall.

Mom on the other side of the room, covered in dried blood and wet blood from various cuts, breathing raspy, and also chained.

I shut the door behind me and rushed towards my mom.

"Please, no more." Mom whimpered.

"Mom, it's me." I told her, tears stinging my eyes.

Mom's eyes lit up and she smiled and sobbed.

"My baby boy." Mom said to me as she smiled and sobbed then stopped smiling as she explained what had happened. "They killed your father in front of me to make me talk. Neither of us did. We wouldn't tell them anything. They told us that Kybo was the Avatar. How are Kybo and Joy?"

I sobbed as I smiled at her.

"They are good, they are safe with the White Lotus." I assured her

She smiled and halfway sobbed, halfway laughed.

"I expected so, they had you."

Tears kept poured from my eyes as she talked.

"I'm going to get you out of here mom." I assured her.

She shook her head.

"I'll be dead by tomorrow." Mom told me. "Lift my shirt."

I did as she said and was shocked at what I saw. Almost her entire stomach was red and purple from infection.

I began to hear commotion outside and banging on the door. The guards from outside must have gotten in and told everyone else.

"Come closer Marcus." Mom told me.

I did as she said and leaned forward.

"You have to protect them." Mom begged. "Kybo and Joy."

I leaned back and looked her in the eyes.

"I promise."

At that moment the door burst open and guard flooded in.

"Don't move!" The guard in the front yelled.

Surprisingly, I didn't feel anger, just nothing. I didn't think at all.

I didn't even have to move my hands. All of the twenty or so guards were frozen in place. They yelled because that was all they could do. They couldn't move a muscle.

With surprising calmness, I twitched one of my fingers and, like one large chorus, all of their necks snapped in unison and they dropped to the floor.

* * *

**I would say that I hoped you enjoyed this story, but if you enjoyed it, I'd have to ask you to walk to an asylum. All jokes aside, I'll try my best to post more but I can't make any promises. But I can promise you this, I won't quit on this story like I have before. Anyways, peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


	19. Denial

**Yeah, sorry about not keeping a consistent schedule. Again, school can be a pain. Anyways, I hope you like this. Enjoy.**

**-ApollotheNinja**

* * *

**_Kybo's POV_**

It had been about six hours since I heard the news.

I had failed.

They were dead.

I was the worst Avatar in the world.

How could I protect the world if I couldn't even protect my own parents?

I had heard about how Marcus found my parents, Dad dead for a few days and Mom near death. He had escaped somehow and taken Mom to a nearby hospital, where she died shortly after. Members of the White Lotus is going to the hospital to get Marcus, as well as my parents' bodies and are currently taking them back to our location.

I had spent the first three hours trying to calm down and comfort Joy, who was completely hysterical and was extremely happy about her new third eye tattoo up until this moment.

"I going to go to the training grounds, I want to blow something up." Joy solemnly told me after she had calmed down and her tear ducts ran dry.

After she ran off. I just spent hours in my room, lying face up in my bed until I heard a soft knock on my door.

I was tempted to scream at the person, to tell them to go away, I wanted to demand answers, to storm off like Marcus had done, but I sighed answered. "Come in."

I was glad I didn't turn the person away because the person at the door was Pema, the person I desperately needed to see at the moment.

I sat up.

She didn't say anything, she just ran towards me and hugged me.

"I'm so sorry Kybo." Pema softly whispered in my ear.

I hugged her and buried my face in her golden hair.

"I'm the worst Avatar ever." I whispered in her ear, trying to hold back tears. I was the Avatar, I couldn't cry. I had to be strong, for my friends, for Joy, for Pema.

Pema pulled away from the hug and looked me in the eyes.

"Don't say that, Kybo." Pema told me. "You have more strength, heart, and wit than anyone I've ever met. I can't imagine an Avatar better than you."

Her saying that meant more than anything I've ever heard in the world.

Pema began to speak again.

"Remember, Dante's parents were also killed by the Red Star and he blamed himself."

"But Dante isn't the Avatar." I responded solemnly. "How am I going to face Marcus? The last time I saw him, I basically told him that our parents weren't my first priority. Now they are dead."

"Maybe he'll forgive you. Maybe he won't." Pema told me flatly.

No comforting statement, no reassuring, just the cold hard fact, which, for some reason, made me feel better than any of that.

There was a soft knock on the door.

Pema sat on the bed next to me as Nora cautiously walked in.

"Sorry, but I wanted you to know that Marcus is back." She sheepishly explained.

"With my parents' bodies?" I asked, hopeful.

Nora nodded.

"He's waiting for you."

The two of us stood up and as I walked out of my room, following Nora, Pema kept pace with me, holding my hand.

I finally got to the landing pad, where the airship had landed, Joy was already there, clearly having blown enough objects up, anxiously waiting. Dante was there too, along with Kaze.

I was about fifty feet from the ship when Pema turned towards me.

"Good luck." She told me.

I gave her a soft kiss on the mouth and slowly approached the ship, heart pounding.

With a mechanical hiss, the drawbridge came down and clanked onto the rocky ground.

There he was. Looking exactly the same as before. He had been gone three days, but it felt like three years.

As Marcus disembarked, Joy ran up the drawbridge and tackled him in a hug, almost knocking him down, and began to sob.

Marcus strokes her hair and kissed her on the head, mumbling something to her.

Joy nodded and stood aside as Marcus settled his gaze on me and began to approach.

I could hear my heart pounding as he approached. Was he going to yell at me? Punch me? Just not speak to me?

"Marcus, I..." I began to say as he got closer, until he did something I didn't expect.

He hugged me.

I couldn't hold my tears back anymore.

"I'm so sorry, Marcus." I sobbed as I hugged him back.

"I don't think anything would have changed if you were there." Marcus said, comfortingly. "It was foolish to leave you, especially alone. I'm sorry."

Marcus pulled away.

"You did the responsible thing."

I didn't know what to say, so I was just gapping like a catfish.

Marcus' stomach suddenly let out a growl like a raging sky bison, coaxing a laugh out of the both of us.

"I haven't eaten since last night." Marcus explained, then mustered a smile. "I desperately want to eat something."

I was so relieved that he wasn't mad at me, so I smiled back.

"Sure, how about..."

Kaze quickly interjected.

"Nora will show you to the mess hall." Kaze told Marcus, then turned to me. "Kybo, may I speak to you in private?"

I gazed at Marcus, who looked disappointed, but nodded in my direction and walked off with Nora, patting Dante on the way out, mumbling some kind of apology about about a map.

Kaze led me away from everyone else, walking surprisingly graceful for a man of his years.

"I'm sorry, is there a reason you dragged me away from my brother?" I asked, frustrated.

Kaze nodded.

"It's about Marcus." Kaze told me. "You need to keep an eye on him."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, bewildered.

Kaze looked to see if anyone else was eves dropping, then answered.

"In the base, we discovered a pile of Red Star bodies, no signs of struggle, with snapped necks and no hand marks." Kaze explained.

I furrowed my brow

"Seriously, you think Marcus could have done that?" I asked, quite shocked that he assumed that. "How is someone able to an entire squad of Red Star members?"

Kaze looked at me gravely.

"Bloodbending."

I had heard of bloodbending before. The most horrible form of bending, my parents had explained.

"Can't it only be done in a full moon?" I asked suspiciously.

"In most cases, yes, but some are strong enough to do it without the full moon. The only living person we know that can do that is the Count, the leader of the Triple Threat triad. Even then, he can't do something of that magnitude."

I struggled to find the words to respond to this.

"They deserved it." I finally said.

"Maybe," Kaze responded, "but bloodbending is the only form of bending that can effect norms mind, and if Marcus truly did this, then he might be the most powerful blood bender in history."

"Master Kaze." A voice from behind us made us jump.

We looked and saw that it was Marcus.

Kaze put on a poker face and turned towards him. "Hello Marcus, I forgot to thank you for helping us uncover the Red Star's main base of operations. Anyways, how can I help you?"

"When I was in the Red Star base, I disguised myself as a guard and learned why many of the Red Star members were gone." Marcus explained. "They said it was because they were converging right here. They are planning some kind of attack."

We just can't catch a break, can we?

Kaze strikes his beard for a moment as he was thinking, trying to think of a plan.

"They must be traveling on land, since air travel is too noticeable." Kaze deduced. "They will be here by tomorrow, we need to act now."

Kaze began to walk away.

"Where are you going?" I called after him.

"To prepare this base for war."

* * *

**Again, sorry it took so long to post. I hope you enjoyed. Thank you. Peace.**

**-ApollotheNinja **


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